It’s over. Unfortunately, I’m living back in the real world again. No more tropical pursuits.

After my long-winded Caribbean diversion a failure to find a rich sugar-mumma to sponsor my leisurely lifestyle has meant a return to the working world. It was touch and go there at points as to whether I would, but I did finally decide to give up the homeless and unemployed beach bum lifestyle and follow through on the plan to move to Vancouver.

Now, having successfully found myself a job and somewhere to live, I’m confronting that time of year when I’m starring down the barrel at six long months of cold, dark winter and I start to wonder what the hell I’m doing still living in the northern hemisphere.

It’s not all bad though. Vancouver is just as much of beautiful city as I remember it. I’ve got a decent job working for the CBC (the Canadian public broadcaster) on their website as an Information Architect. I’ve found an awesome apartment to share with another guy in the trendy area of Kitsilano so I can maintain my usual inner-city yuppy lifestyle (my place just at the end of the bridge in this webcam overlooking Kits). I’ve had no trouble getting to know the locals and making friends, in fact my Aussie(/English) accent is actually a bonus here compared to London.

I even managed to play half a season of cricket and achieve one of my main goals in moving here of playing a game at Stanley Park - according to the Don one of the world’s most picturesque cricket grounds. I stumbled across cricket being played at Stanley Park last time I was here a few years ago and without realising it until I actually did it have always subconsciously dreamed of coming back and playing there myself.

The best part about it all is that I don’t miss London one iota. With the exception of the many good friends I sadly left behind, I haven’t stopped to think about that cesspit of humanity for a second. I’m not sure whether it because London is such a shitty, crowded and polluted city, or because Vancouver is such a liveable city but I have been walking around for the last couple of months randomly announcing to anyone in earshot that this place is just so darn nice. Maybe it’s just because I haven’t had to go down an airless underground tunnel with the rest of the rat race recently, or maybe it’s because I know that once winter properly sets in that I can take off from work early and go skiing up in the mountains for the evening. Either way, the idea of the long winter ahead doesn’t seem to scare me as much as it did in London for the last few years.