"How's the weather over there?"

The answer is: a bit windy. Quite windy in fact. Since it was my day off today and I had nothing better to do I decided to head to Wal Mart in North Vancouver. Which involves walking through Stanley Park and over the Lions Gate Bridge. Well it does if you're me anyway.

I was on the phone to my mum at the time trying to convince her I was still alive, since she'd seen a show in the UK about how sometimes people living abroad go missing and turn up dead. I hadn't been heard from in a few days so naturally she assumed this was what had occurred. So it probably didn't help when I was walking alongside the road through Stanley Park and remarked how windy it was. Shortly after this I heard a very loud crack and looked to my left and saw three tall trees swaying rather nervously in a particularly strong gust of wind. I was disappointed; I thought a tree had gone over and I missed it. But almost immediately there was another sharp breath of wind and what I can only describe as the sound of a tree breaking and falling. And there it was, a tree that was easily 100 feet tall just plummeting to the ground in the forest on the North side of the park. The thing came crashing down with a lot of satisfying wood-breaking noises. I found this extremely exciting; my mum did not. "How long until you're out of the forest?" I also came upon another tree that has previously fallen and was blocking the sidewalk and one lane of the road. After successfully negotiating this, I headed for the bridge.

Immediately after setting foot onto the bridge I seemed to feel a little weird, almost seasick. Then I realised it was because the bridge was moving underfoot. This information nearly sent mum over the edge, again I found this quite funny. And it got better. Walking over a bridge has never been so much fun. The wind was buffeting me almost the entire way, I had to walk at an angle into the wind so I wasn't blown into the road. A few times it took me a little way left, at least it was blowing me further into the bridge and not over the side. I had to shout to make myself heard on the phone, the noise was pretty deafening. I also saw a pigeon that had taken refuge in a non-windy corner of a support strut. I've never seen a nervous pigeon before but this one looked scared out of its mind. And so it was with careful steps and nervous parents asking me how far I had to go that I made it over to the relative sanctuary of North Vancouver.

So that was my Friday. I'm sorry mum, but it was very funny. I told you I wouldn't phone you when I got to Wal Mart to let you know I was alright.

And when I did get there? The mall with the Wal Mart in had a complete power cut. What a waste of time.