Had quite an active day today I would say. Got up at 6:30 to go to Vancouver. Forgot breakie before I left, which made the journey down quite long and boring because my iRiver iHP-140 ran out of power. Anyway, we got there and had a great view of Van, covered in fog (natural fog not smog) appart from the tallest buildings. Too good to miss I thought, so I lept off just past Stanely Park.

Nice walk in, but still very familiar and, well, somewhat uninspiring. I set about locating the nearest iPod. HMV didn’t have them but Future Shop on Granville did. I am now the proud owner of a 60gb White iPod (5th Gen, with Video). Oh my its fanfrickin tastic!

I then went to the Burger King down the street to get a Whopper Combo (I haven’t had any big-chain junk food since I got here with the exception of a Fillet Burger from KFC 6 weeks ago, I deserve it). Remembering why I signed off junk food and super-sugar drinks, I decided to open the iPod box up and have a look.

Oh its pretty… AND ITS CHARGED!? It was a bit of a suprise! But at least I had the joy of playing Solitare on the bus back now!

Some things that you might not be aware of about the new iPods:

• No Docks (ok, these went ages ago, with the intro of the 4th Gen)
• No Power Adaptor, just charging off USB (I can’t say I’m too bothered at the moment, I don’t have a spare power plug and I’ve got my laptop only in my room at the mo, but I will probably have to go to the trouble of picking up a power adaptor before I travel)
• No printed manual (like you need one to operate one of these)
• Pretty crappy sleve case (this I was disappointed about, its very tight around the 60gb version and I think its made for the 30gb (slightly thinner) version

However, I knew that as soon as I loaded this thing up with media these issues would disappear faster than a nun at a porn party.

Anyway, I roamed around Van looking to see if I could find any good accesories, however, I really wanted to head back since I couldn’t think of anything that I hadn’t done while I was here at the start of the trip. After a walked back to the Greyhound stop, but decided to hop on the bus to Park Royal Shopping Centre.

We were chasing the Greyhound bus I had intended to get most of the way, oh well, 2 more hours to explore. After a bit of browsing I went to find the bus stop (in the hope of some info). Apparently West Van cops think that walking around lost, with a cap on, with sunglasses on the cap is a good enough reason to pull you over (in an unmarked car which makes it harder for you to work out your not actually being robbed). Good thing I listened to that little voice in my head telling me to take my passport with me, and I’m sure that all the police are pretty familiar with visa documentation, nice to see you checking it. Oh well, at least I found out where the bus stop was.

I’ve got no problem (believe it or not) with being stopped if I’m larking around like a jackass or something (although I won’t like it), or if there’s a good reason that I’m made aware of (i.e. so that we can both walk away feeling respected). I do resent being pulled up with no explanation and asked for my passport and if I’ve been arrested when the cop himself says that I’m looking lost. Well anyway, I’m sure the cop had his reasons too and perhaps is out there writing a similar blog post.

Anyway, a bit more roaming of Park Royal and I finally got to the bus stop. Got talking to a local who was heading up to his Dad’s cabin (with enough weed to survive a full bottle of Rotokill). I let him know about my run in, he acted as if he wasn’t phased but the weed was hidden when he though I wouldn’t notice. Was nice to have a ski convo and he had a 40gb 4th Gen iPod photo, wow, those were thick.

Anyway, I’m back home now. Pasta for tea. Booze shop was closed and I didn’t want to go to the Longhorn’s Sunday Night Cram.

The iPod is FANTASTIC. I really like syncing with iTunes rather than using the shell to transfer stuff. Playlists are much nicer and podcasts are ridiclously easy. The video is much more watchable than you would think. After a while you don’t even notice the iPod in your view. Photo’s are also particlarly good (although it took 40 minutes to “optimise” 3500 of them for iPod use).

I’ll post some more reviews soon. Sorry that story is a bit long and boring, I’m killing some time so I can ring home.