Its important you read this

Wow. What a immense four days. That is all I can say, and yet I know you lot won’t take that as a proper explanation. So here goes. I suppose that we really need to go back in time…

Two weeks ago I read something in the Staff newsletter about a charity head shave. Now at that point my head was ridiculously long and getting in my eyes. Numerous people had told me to get a haircut. You can see where this is going, right?

$400 worth of pledges later I’m sat in a bar in a chair having my hair ceremoniously shaved off. I was amazed, not just at how cold it was, but rather the atmosphere that was floating around the place. Everyone in that room was having fun and raising money for a fantastic cause, BC children’s hospital. So it was in this spirit that I asked Rob if he would buy a raffle ticket for me, more to just give more money.

When the dude read out my number I was surprised. I was still cold, but when a pair of tickets for the Vancouver Canucks were pressed into my palm I considerably warmed up. Of course I invited Rob to join me as it was a combination of his and mine good luck that won them. I was amazed, I would never been able to avoid the $85 tickets and had resigned myself to not seeing a ice hockey game, but here was my big chance.

‘Who are they playing?’ Someone asked.
‘The Los Angeles Kings.’
‘Awesome. When?’
‘The 3^rd of April. Oh. That’s Tuesday.’

After calling in a few favours we managed to get the time off work, thank you Mat, Erin, the supervisors for being so understanding and everyone else who covered us! Straight from work we jumped onto a coach heading to Vancouver with nothing more than tickets and money in our pockets.

The seats were amazing. The game was good (I’m still a football fan). And then came the fun decision. We had missed the last coach back to Whistler, which we had pretty much expected. Rob had to work at midday the next day.

So the only option was to get the 5.15 bus the following day, just to ensure that Rob would get back in time. And the best way to spend your first night in Vancouver?

1 - Find a comfy Hotel/hostel and settle down for the night.

2 - Attempt to drink throughout the night.

I’ll take a 2 please Bob.

Ha! We managed to find Granville St, the main pub area in Van. And once we had sampled beer in 5 different bars (including Leffe, about bloody time I had some decent booze) Rob and I had a evil plan.

We would document the night through pictures. Of people touching my newly bald head. The reasons we used for the rest on night varied, and I think that the fact I was wearing my t-shirt which had the charity on helped, but I now have pictures of about 30 people touching my head for luck. This includes, but not limited to…

• Barmaids
• Pretty girls
• Not so pretty girls
• Soldiers having one night out before being moved to Somalia
• Random dudes who asked what was going on.
• The LOS ANGELES KINGS ICE HOCKEY TEAM
  

Ha! What a night! Then we staggered to a take-away (Rob almost threw up) then to a 7-11 (I broke the drinks dispenser), then back to the bus station (which we found without too much hassle and with only a couple of strange people following us). Time arrived, 4.45. We waited for the coach for a half hour, and then got on and both fell asleep, waking up upon our arrival in Whistler at 7.45.

All this from wanting a free haircut and raising some money for charity.

Whistler officially rocks.

Photos will be forthcoming, I just need to find a USB thingy.