Dooly's Members Night

It was Dooly's members night last night. Free pool all night, free snacks and prizes given out.
I'm a member now and I spend most of my Island life there, so I know quite a few people now.
We went there straight after work, I thought more people from work would go actually, and it was a slow start, but by 9pm the place was packed and we had some good games.
I'm not sure what happened, I wore my contact lenses, and my game of pool shot through the roof... I was on like a 7 or 8 win streak!
Took the camera and got photos of people below.

That's Bob on the left, and playing Viabhav on the right. I work with both of them,though not currently on any projects with them, they're both programmers. Bob as you know loaned me his chair and gave me a router, he's English, Viabhav (pronounced VeeBoo) is from Bombay, India, a very pleasant bloke.
This is JR, one of the testers from Sculpin. Sculpin is like a sister company that tests games - not just ours. But they're right next door in the Atlantic Technology Centre, so it' really easy to get them to test and report bugs.
JR played pool, drank shots and then at about 11pm went back to work because there's a big project needing finishing. The other day he did 25 hours straight games testing!!


Another tester from Scuplin, Ryan. I only met him last night... he's a top bloke ;)

This is the Dooly's barmaids. Nicole, Erica and Liz. I don't know why, but JR jumped behind the bar for some reason.... hmm, I wonder why?

The bar...

Edge Magazine

Well my drinking continued into Saturday with a guy from Edge magazine who is in town doing interviews with the games companies here. They are going to do an article on why PEI had so many companies.
Other Ocean took him out for chips and drinks, and we got plastered. He was an English bloke so could quote Red Dwarf :)
The difference this time was that all the drinks and snacks were paid for by the company.
They are here an interviewing for the article today and tomorrow.
So keep a look out, I'll notify you on the blog when it comes out, could be an interesting read.

The snow came down in torrent last night - I was oblivious. Woke up this morning to find the whole place back to the way it was when I first got here 3 weeks ago.

hmph... I've just discovered that next door has a dog. This house has like an attached granny flat to it, and someone else lives there. It's been kicking off this evening.

Anyway, James has loaned me Streetfighter 4 on the 360 to test the NTSC compatibility with my PAL xbox. Apparently, although the 360 is region encoded, it's up to the developer to utilise this function... so far Bioshock worked, and hopefully SF4 will too... HadUUUUUKan!

Beer!

Man....

It's cack and boring being in an empty house, with one gaming chair, and a TV. The laptop is a pain to use, hunched over the 'foot stand', and my Xbox doesn't work with the power here.
Trying to get a new power supply from eBay.
Cannot wait until my stuff arrives!!

Beer is encroaching back into my life... good times, however beer is encroaching back into my life... bad times!

After work, it seems pretty grim to head home and sit in an empty room, so on Tuesday I went to Doolys for a quick sharp half. Paul, who looks like Charlton Heston and Gordon (not my boss, but an old bloke) were there and we were discussing the different pool rules. They seemed intrigued by the 'Northern ' up our way' UK rules', so gave it a try.
So we played pool, drank beer and I crawled home at 1:30am.

Wednesday, Matt sends an MSN message saying that Churchills, the pub, the 'British' pub, is curry night. This happens but once a week. So we head there for a curry. The place was jammed, and we had to wait well over an hour before we were seated. Stella costs $7.50!!!!
Have no choice but to give in to Molson soon:(
Anyway Viabhav (I think that's how you spell it :) ), another Indian guy from work turns up with his friends. So you've got the 3 Asian guys in Charlottetown, all in craving a good curry.
Well.... There once as an Indian place apparently, but it's gone now, so this is the 'only place to get a curry'. And not just any curry according to locals and immigrants alike... a traditional 'British' curry... because apparently that's what we are all about in the UK... beer and curry... I thought it was Fish n' Chips... but anyway...

The choice then.... potato skins and other random fried stuff for starters...
Korma, Madras or Tikka Masala. The good thing was that it was 2 for 1, so only cost about 11 bucks. The bad thing was that for less than 11 bucks I could have bought some Uncle Bens and had a better time. It was full of sharp tomato, and very sweet.

The best you're going to get 'on the island'.... so I cannot wait for my spices and wife to arrive :)
Matt has already been invited to get his arse round as soon as the spices arrive and make a chicken curry... proper.

Then last night I head to the bank to see about getting a Visa card. You see you 'need' one here. Sadly the bank charges, just to have an account and use it ($12.95 per month) to have unlimited transactions. The minimum was $3.95 per month, and that meant you can do 10 transactions... so getting money from the wall is a transaction, and so is purchasing food from the grocer's say.
So if you go to the super market, buy stuff, then realised you forgot milk, go back and use your card again, that's 2 transactions gone. Once you've used your 10, it costs per transaction.
It's all very pantz, so I went for unlimited, however - the card is not Visa, and Switch/Maestro doesn't exist here. There's an equivalent, but not so abundant.
Anyway, I chose TD as my bank because they're open until 8pm, so I go there and... it's closed.
Due to storm.
There had been a downfall of snow during the day, about 4 inches at least in the town.
So I headed back and saw Doolys open, so popped in, for a quick sharp half.

Some Scottish bloke soon heads over, Rory, who knows my boss Gordon and starts buying me beer. Well... I rolled out at 11pm, sauntered back and watched American Idol.

Matt wants to go out tonight... 'oi vey' more beer!!

The alternative... sit in an empty room on a gaming chair, with no games console...

A word to anyone thinking of leaving your country for a new job. Send your stuff well before you leave and bring your wife and kid with you!!

Photos

Many of you don't know this, but if you click on ANY of the photos that I've posted it will enlarge to the full size version.Beware they are large and can take over 30 seconds to load befor eyou'll see it, but if you're interested in seeing more detail... there you go.

Jack Frost Festival 2009

So today was the final day of the Jack Frost Festival, held in Charlottetown. This is the 3rd or 4th year that they've done it.
It was really cold out, but the place was so enchanting that I stayed out looking around, fascinated by most of it, for over 3 hours.
I wished Hayden was here today, it really was a kids paradise, and I wanted to play on some of the things.... couldn't by myself - he's a great excuse to dick about :)
Kath would have marvelled at it all too.
Well I can share what I saw here in my blog anyway. I have taken videos and will upload them during the week to come.
I knew it was going to be one of those things you don't get to experience everyday when I walked into the entrance...


A massive wall of snow, with a giant welcome message carved into it was just the start...

I'd been told by the ice sculpting guy that they actually created most of the snow here, using a snow machine.
This stuff has to be jumped up and down on the compact it enough to carve, otherwise it'll just break and fluff away like the stuff I showed you in the 'white outs', that's what snow is like here until the temperature rises... like talc!
And, as we all know, as soon as you scrape up snow to make a snow man, you immediately grab all the mud up with it, creating a dirty brown mess.
Not here...
Another advantage of the created snow is that it has a slight blue hue to it, making the really big snow sculptures look and feel even more magical!
Plus, there just wasn't enough snow :)


There were a ton of people there and I wondered around taking tons of pictures. It was hard to narrow them down to the few that I have here in the post.

One of the highlights was this playground, completely made of snow. A climbing wall, tunnels, slides...

... a really tall bloke...

I really wanted a go on this slide. When I walked around this harbour two weeks ago I saw a huge digger piling up a mountain of snow, at the time I had no idea that it was building this giant slide, one of many. The actual slide (the groove) is made of ice bricks, implanted into the snow hill. I will bring my waterproofs next year and I'll have Hayden with me as an excuse to go on it :)

This tube ride also was very fast...

There were certain events going on throughout the day. At 4:00pm, The Flying Canucks started their show, doing snowboarding and ski ramp jumps and trampolining, to timing and music. It was short, but pretty good. I have some video which I will link to YouTube if you click the image. Check back later in the week when I've done this.
Now to the really cool works of art. There was a competition going on for big snow sculptures. These were big, well over my height.

This was like the snow queen from Narnia...

This was wicked. It was entitled 'Snow Angels'. It's difficult to pick out the amount of detail when everything is so white, but that's the devil riding on top, full on 'rawk' tongue, holding a snow flake. I guess Hell froze over then!

This was carved into one of the big walls....

Surf's up big kahuna!

During the day there were a bunch of guys doing ice sculptures. I spent ages sat there watching them. I'm going to try one next year. I need some tools and a chainsaw :)

I managed to snap this as the guy started. If you look closely, you can see that he has drawn an outline of what he's going to carve. In case you can't see it, it's a wolf howling upward.

This is it about 2 hours later...

He said it was his first ice sculpture.

This bloke did that big face that was carved into the wall above, and was doing something similar here. A woman's face with hair blowing back, some type of mermaid or snow maiden.

High detail on the face an hour or so later

They made this 'crystal' ball out of ice. Earlier in the day it was really clear, but the guy was telling me that as the temperature gets warmer, the ice starts to crack. It didn't feel warm!

It actually looks quite cool however like this.

Surprisingly they have the ice made for them. You can't just leave ice in a block outside over night... oh no. It will freeze in layers and the centre will be cloudy, like an ice cube.

This water is circulated so that the impurities stay at the top. It is frozen from the bottom up, and then the top layer (which is cloudy with impurities) is cut off, leaving a really clear piece of ice to carve.

Amazing what you learn!

Biggest Icicle Ever!!

Happy Valantines day to Kath :)

It's -8 here at the moment, the sun is out and things are.... frozen... but melting. This is the biggest icicle I've ever seen, hanging from the roof above my back door.
It's easily over 2 feet in length... no lie!

LOL

Check out the post I did entitled 'Shopping'.

Borat has commented on my blog. He likes me... do I like a him?

LOL

Night Out

Well, sadly the project I was on and have been working on for the past couple of weeks got cancelled. Apparently this happens all of the time in the industry with publishers pulling the plug because they got some market research back or some other unknown reason. Whilst we all still get a wage (and in my case i was learning a lot), as programmers, games programmers, it's gutting that no one will ever see our work. We don't even get any credit, and I can't even tell you what it was! Quite frustrating and disappointing, I was looking forward to revealing what I've been working on, once we could give the word, but now no one will ever know.

Anyway, although it was a Thursday night, this disappointment meant that we would go out and have a few drinks. (lots actually).

I joined Doolys the other day, which is a pool hall.

Went out with Matthew. He's below, taking a shot. Matt's a designer at Other Ocean and has been here since the summer, all the way from India. He's a good laugh, and swears a lot. He designed the game we'd been working on, and is now annoyed that another developer may be sold the design, nicking his ideas. But he says he's gotten used to that happening now.

Pool is a girls game anyway!

This is quite different from how we play in England. You have to call each ball and each shot. If your opponent fouls (they call it a 'scratch') you get to place the cue ball anywhere on the table, not just behind the line. But you only get one shot - not two. A scratch does not occur if you pot your opponents ball!?, but bizarrely, after the cue ball has struck the ball you aimed for, one ball MUST bounce off of a cushion, otherwise it's a scratch!

This sucks, as you can't set up little snookers etc.
Here I am about to win :) Good times.

I only won 1 out of 5 games though.... Bad times.


After Doolys at about 22:30, Matt still wanted to go drinking, so we headed to Hunters bar for more beer. It's a lively place. First time I'd been there, but the barmaid was already on first name basis by the end of the night. Kim is below, and owes us a free pitcher of beer :)
I convinced her 'it was a scam' because she served us a pitcher and then called time just 5 minutes later. How the hell was two drunk guys going to finish 4 pints of really cold beer!

We gave it our best shot :), but she said next time we go in, she'd give us one for free. A pitcher that is ;)

These two guys were really good. Just playing two electric/acoustic guitars, and playing some good covers in a kind of.... country/rock/bluegrass way.

I mean, War Pigs... acoustic! I have uploaded a video of them doing Zombie by the Cranberries to YouTube. Click the image to view it if you want...

Can we fix it?

Yes we can!

Good old Bob. You see, you help people out, by moving a couple of Sofas on a Sunday afternoon, and then they give you pizza, beer, a wireless router and an office chair!

Yay - gone is that pantz chair I found from the basement, rusty piece of crap, denting the floor, probably cost me $350 for my damage deposit - poxy thing.

But no more, I have an office chair so I can sit straight and eat my meals.... rather than spill them all down my top when I'm lounging in my gaming chair :)

Now going to eat my Microwave Madras and watch Lost, got some catching up to do, as I ain't seen it since I got here. 3 Episodes tonight :)

Nothing to see here

Move along!

Ain't got owt to report, went to work, got a lift to Canadian Tire for a puncture repar kit, just made some buffolo chicken wings... nice!
Just seen american Idol - think the UK will get this on Thursday or Friday night.
Now watching Simpsons.
Gotta try and catch up on Lost, it's on tomorrow. Oh Heroes is on here,, saw the new episode last night, don't think BBC is showing it yet - it's all gone very.... no.. no spoilers :)
What I never knew though is that Seymour Skinner is an imposter... who knew this?

Shipment

Finally received word from White & Co about our house and goods. Should be arriving in Halifax on 24th February - with any luck I'll be in comfort again by the end of the month.
Yay! In other news my Aerobed, seems to have developed a leak, had gone flat the past couple of nights...

Bad times.

Jack Frost

Next weekend there's a Jack Frost Festival on the harbour. I have to get tickets, but there's snow carvings etc. and fireworks. So stay tuned next weekend as i should hopefully have some nice photos.

New friends

Well I finished scrubbing the kitchen, now that I have all these kitchen supplies. Auntie Ins called - the first person to call on my new number (if i discount the automated call about car warranties... or whatever the hell it was!)

A guy called Bob from work was moving house yesterday so I headed there at 1pm to help move the sofa's etc. We finished up off loading the van at his at around 5ish. The nightmare was this massive dresser which was well heavy. It was almost impossible to push it up his tiny staircase and then we had to rotate it, face up so that the drawers didn't fall open, over the banister.

His new ceiling did get a couple of dents in it... but considering how bloody heavy this thing was, and the fact that the drawers could NOT be removed (in case you were wondering), I think it was not too bad. He paid us in beer and pizza.

Good times.

At 6pm Christian came by to pick me up and take me to his place for more beer and food :)

Christian started at Other Ocean last January, in much the same circumstance as me (meeting them at the games career fair). He has been my contact since the beginning of this venture, and it was his wife Zoe who checked out the house for us back in November.

That's Christian with the long hair and Zoe in black. Mick and Lisa are a couple of Northerners who've been in Canada for a few years now.

Cristian and Zoes abode. It's frickin' awesome. The interior is massive and totally open plan. I felt it would be rude to photograph their home and post it up on the web, but the exterior is OK. It really is awesome and is situated on the north of the island, directly above Charlottetown. Things is there's nothing in this area, his neighbour is about half a kilometer away.

The house is brand new, they only moved in September. Unbelievably, this house, or one like it, costs only $200,000 CDN, which is about £109,000!!!! Imagine a house like this in Herfordshire!

The reason the houses are so cheap is because of the materials. Apparently they can build these things in about 2 months. Some special chipboard. Now this may sound crappy. In England we seem to have this idea that unless it's brick built, it'll be crap and fall down or be cold. But consider that this place has weather conditions 30x worse than in the UK. They don't fall down, they bend with the wind and they are REALLY warm.
This was one being built.

On the way home today Christian took me for a drive around the north part and over to North Rustico, along the shore.
Mr Tumnus, Mr Tumnus?

Driving over this bridge goes over part of the bay near Stanhope. The sea was frozen, but not in the middle area. Maybe it's too choppy?

One minute it's clear, the next... WHITE OUT. Chris seem to be unphased by the sudden blinding white and snow drifts across the road. The snow is so fine that it blows like dust and forms big, deep ridges across the road in minutes. You just have to plough through it. It's no place for my Nissan Skyline!!

The famous Stanhope Lighthouse :)

Blue sky?! Temperature changes are bizarre. Not an hour after being in a windy, -17C situation, the sun was out and it was all bright and cheerful again.

I took this picture of the rolling hills. It's hard to imagine what this place looks like in the summer, and what lies beneath all that white.

Shopping

Although hung over, I managed to get up and tidy the crap up which was scattered all over the house and caught the bus to the Charlottetown Mall.

It's a large mall, pretty impressive I got 80 items from Dollarrama (it's like Poundland... but with Dollars... oh and tax...)

Plus as much food as I could carry. Hopefully set up for the next couple of weeks - at least until pay day :)

Let it snow...

The snow came down fairly heavy yesterday.
I had to wait in during the morning for the 'Cable Guy' to come and install my phone, TV and broadband. Hurrah, I'm finally connected full time, no more temperamental cut offs, and long uploads of pictures.

Of course I've been busy all week with my first week of work as a Games Programmer :), and for this reason I've not been able to really update the blog much.

Last night I didn't come back home to post either. I went to Doolys, and got mashed. It's not so great at home without Kath there, so I just stayed and got wasted. Spent way too much though... and somehow managed to stumble home in the snow and -13C conditions (I'm told) and crashed.
Anyway here's a couple of pics of the snow yesterday morning to try and show how blood deep it is.


My Black bin is over there somewhere... I can't get at it at the moment, need to do a MAJOR dig, so rubbish is now starting to amount.
I'll need to get this out.

LOL, this guy ain't going nowhere!!

Look!, on my way to work, part of the sidewalk had not been cleared, it's up to my knee!!

Just another nice shot of Spring Street :)

New Stuff

I finally got to Canadian Tire, and discovered that they ain't got much of what I wanted, but Walmart did. Got a decent TV and a cheap phone ready for my installation of Cable/Phone and Broadband tomorrow morning.


It's a shame, this morning when I walked to work the snow was piled about 5-6 feet high - sometimes even taller than me, and the main street, University Avenue (the view where I took the picture f the Confederation Hall) had about 4 feet of snow piled up in the middle, making two lanes.
A police car even got stuck on a high bit. I wished I had my camera, and thought, no matter I'll take a pic tomorrow. Lo and behold, by lunch time the WHOLE road was cleared!


I saw them doing on a side road, massive tractors picking up loads of snow and dumping it into tons of lorries (it looked like a scene from Die Hard 3, same sort of trucks, but instead of stealing loads of gold, they were hauling snow away). Streets are clear...

Anyway Here's some stuff I bought.
Some shopping, but I still have a ton more to do at other places.

Finally - an electric kettle!! Yay, only $12.

No this next one was a FIND. I have been complaining to Kath all week that I have this chair I found in the basement which is rusty and shite, and has no feet. It's dented the floor I think, even though I tried to pad the feet, so I needed a chair. She said no :(

Bad times...

However i could not let this Gaming Chair, which has rumble and sound built in pass me by. Once cable is installed tomorrow I'll be comfortable at last.
And Kath,you don't need to worry about the money, it was a steal at just $50!!, that's like £30, don't know what was wrong with it .

Good times...

Not all good though, turned on my Xbox to face the Red Rings Of Death!
Upon checking the power I found that frickin' Micro$oft have only given a 240v transformer, not dual voltage! I hope it hasn't damaged my Xbox, now I'll have to go hunt down a US style transformer :(

The Storm...

Had to head home last night, so didn't make it out. This is the view from my front door at about 7:00pm.
as you can see, there's no way a taxi was going to come get to me :), and I was not walking for 40 minutes in that! LOL

This morning, I went to the back door. Remember I said how the wind blows it all into piles... well I guess the wind blows right onto my decking!
It's half way up the door! Double the height of the railings \o/

But, not to let 'snow stop play', these guys are out with the big guns at 7:00am, sorting it out. Business as usual, no getting off wok for us lot over here in Canada, just cause of a bit of snow! Pah!

;)