Santa Parade!

So... the week after the 22 November post, I got sick - typical me. It hit me again on the Thursday, so by Friday I was feeling awful (y'know, it worries me that this looks like a pattern!!) and I left work early. I did nothing all weekend and stayed home on Monday - I don't think I've slept that much since I was recovering from the jetlag!! I was feeling much better by the time I went back to work on Tuesday, but it did mean that I missed our department Christmas lunch :( But I couldn't face dragging myself out of bed - plus I hardly ate that weekend, so not the smartest thing to reintroduce my stomach to food with a big "eventful" lunch!! Anyway, it's taken a while for the sinus part to finally disappear and so far, no coughing, but I suspect it's on its way. My throat's been rather scratchy, but that's really only a problem on the bus and the train!!
Oh! Quick insert - look at this sunset I managed to get a photo of from my room! (and you know me and sunsets!!)


I had my hair re-coloured (yes, hide the grey!!) so I've made that the new profile picture on here - hope you can actually see it!! :)
Work was busy trying to catch up after being off sick and a couple of in-depth requests came through. I bought Julie Andrews' autobiography - finished it the other day (cos I only ever read it on the train!) and am kinda annoyed that it stops halfway through her life!! I know it's entitled "My Early Years", but c'mon!! So now I have to find something else to read - the last few days I've just been dozing off on the train - like everyone else!! I was really battling to sleep, so I tried sleeping with my head at the end of the bed - it must have worked because ever since I moved the pillows back to the top of the bed, I haven't been sleeping so well - I woke up at 4:40 the other day - and my alarm was going off at 5:30!!! aaarrrrrgggghhh...

Friday night we went to Coquitlam and I spent money, Saturday morning I went up to the local shops and spent money, Sunday I went downtown and spent more money - nasty trend developing here!! But, unfortunately, I now have all I need, so I have no more reasons to go shopping :( Except for Christmas presents!! heehee
And the point of going downtown on Sunday (apart from trying to find Gareth's elusive shoes) was to see the Santa Claus parade - wow - the effort that goes into that is unbelievable!! And as I went snap happy (hmmmmm) I've tried to only choose a few photos (yeah, well, I've never been too good at 'minimising'!) and here they are:



The Vancouver police had a skills display, I guess - the guys got to ride up and down the street on their motorcycles!!
Don't you love the red antlers on the front of the bike!!





And the very distinct pattern here would be...?

And suddenly I realise that I've chosen pictures of mostly vehicles!! Think I'm missing my car much?!! There were hundreds of people in the parade! Marching band upon marching band upon marching band. It was fun to see and they put a lot of effort into making sure everyone looked good and was well-rehearsed - I saw the drummers carrying their 3-set drums (don't ask me what they're called!!) and I felt so sorry for them by the end of the parade!! The one guy looked like he was literally bending over backwards!
I loved that some of them even decorated their instruments with tinsel and Christmas decorations!! It's great for kids because there are the 'hangers-on' (I'm sure they have some official title!) who hand out chocolates and stickers and whatever else they can to promote their business/company/etc.

I would love to know how much that poor person in the costume got paid - yes, it was freezing cold (I was convinced I was going to have frostbite on my camera hand!!) but that outfit can't have been too comfortable!!
They had everyone there - the Grinch, Shrek, some poor guy as an ice-cream cone, a beluga whale (though not promoting the Aquarium - odd), Beauty and the Beast from the play which is showing at the moment, gorgeous horses from the equestrian centres - even one group dressed up as the Templars - well, they had one guy in front as the 'king' and a bunch of women following with masks on, so not quite the Templars, but not Arthur and his knights. I don't actually have a clue who they were!! Which was the case for most of the parade...!

And, of course, I had to take a photo of the Purdy's hedgehog!! (Hedgehogs are their most popular chocolate, I think) Their truck was really cool! And the driver was a purple Santa, which I thought was fantastic!

On the way home, I came down the street that leads to our little cul-de-sac - wow. It's - bright. For me, it's fantastic, when I come home in the evenings and see everyone's lights on and all the people who go totally overboard - it makes me smile every time. (I don't think my punctuation was right in that sentence, but I don't care right now!!) So this blurry photo is one of the houses in the street above us:
There's an apartment complex where every single window has something in it - the cool thing is that each floor has a semi-circular window and I think everyone put their trees in there, so you see the trees almost in a line down the side of the building! Every day there's just one more house who's done their lights, or added something or changed something. It makes the nights very not-dark!! Last month when I left the house in the mornings, it was sooooo dark - now it's like sunrise!! (Sure, I'm exaggerating, but you know what I mean!!)
And now? Now I go to bed cos I'm really tired and I need to get up on time tomorrow morning!!