The state of Stanley Park (and other things)

Spring is here. The cherry blossom has already been and gone, and the weather has been much drier the last couple of weeks, which is great news as the end of the Winter was very wet indeed.

Last weekend (the Easter weekend) we mostly took it easy. We got our bikes out for the first time since last October. They hadn't been stolen (yay), although my helmet had disappeared (boo). They didn't take Steph's though, even though it is better than mine. Perhaps it didn't fit their big head. Anyway, after a quick wash and some tire inflation we had a quick ride in Stanley Park. We tried to follow the seawall route, but it is blocked off before you reach Prospect Point because of winter storm damage, so we had to detour through the park and out the other side at Third Beach. The whole route took about an hour but it was enough for our first cycle of the season I think.

Even on our quick ride, we saw a surprising amount of damage to the park from the winter storms. We took a few photos which I've uploaded here. This afternoon I've been for a walk through the park while Steph met up with our friend Jo. I walked up to Prospect Point and then West around the park until I could get down onto the seawall. I was quite shocked at the amount of storm damage I saw up there - it is much more extensive than I'd imagined. Along some parts of the road down from the point, there aren't many trees standing on either side. I expect it will be a long time before the park starts to look normal again.

This next week will be a short one at work for us, as on Thursday we fly to Fort Myers in Florida for Steph's friend Holly's wedding. We stay there until Sunday, and then drive to Miami before returning home on Wednesday. It's quite a lot of travelling but it should be worth it - we are both looking forward to the trip (though I'm not so looking forward to driving in Miami - yikes). We might drive down to the Florida Keys too if time permits.

So right now I have my feet up, but when Steph gets back we are going down to the basement pool as I am trying to learn to swim (or at least tolerate water) so that maybe I can do some kayaking this year. After that, it really will be feet up for the rest of the evening with home-made turkey stew and a rented movie to look forward to. Nice.

Whistler weekend

This was actually two weekends ago now (March 30th - April 1st), but I've been very slow in blogging it.

We booked a room for two nights in Whistler that slept 5 people. Accommodation prices are steep at Whistler that time of year, but I managed to find a pretty good deal. Me and Steph caught the bus there on the Friday evening with our friend Jon, whereas our other friends Lauren and Woody drove down in their car (because they were only staying one day). The room itself was surprisingly nice, and had a lovely (fake) log fire for the evenings.

We really lucked out with the weather on Saturday. The sun shone bright and it felt like summer. The other guys went off skiing and boarding, and I decided to do some snowshoeing so I walked to the nearby Lost Lake Park. The snowshoeing trails were melting fast, so the rental guy suggested I use the cross-country ski trails. After 5 minutes walking though, I realized it was going to be very dull so I went back and swapped my snowshoes for ski poles and decided to hike the snowshoe trails instead. That was a much better idea. The trails were varied and challenging, and there were lots of great views on the way. I really, really enjoyed the day. The other guys were having a lot of fun too, with excellent snow conditions. We all met up at the end of the day for food and then Lauren and Woody left.

On the Sunday, it greyed over and started snowing. Apparently the snow conditions were still good, perhaps even better thanks to the fresh snow. I did a guided snowshoe tour that day. I deliberately went with a different company to Cougar Mountain tours which I walked with last year, but as luck would have it Outdoor Adventures just merged with Cougar Mountain, and I ended up walking largely the same area as before! It was still good fun though, and the area is pretty beautiful so I wasn't too disappointed.

We met up at about 4pm that day and caught the bus back to Vancouver. It was our last ski trip for this season, and it certainly was a great way to end. I took some photos (mostly of my hike on Saturday) which you can find on our Flickr site here.

Mini Film Review: Sharkwater

At first, I thought this film was another "Jaws" clone, and I wasn't interested. Then I saw the trailer, and the film looked more like a nature documentary combined with a bit of an adventure tale which appealed to me so I went to see it with Steph and some of our friends.

About 40% of the film was nature documentary, and there was a lot of gorgeous film. The guy who made the film is an underwater cameraman and he has shot lots of footage of sharks in the wild, including schooling of hammerhead sharks which has rarely been seen before. It was stunning. The guy obviously loved sharks and tried his best to persuade the audience to like them too. One of the most interesting things I learned was that sharks can sense electromagnetic fields (which I knew) but to such an extent that they can sense whether a person is excited or anxious. Apparently, most of the sharks he filmed were so shy that they wouldn't come near him unless he kept super-calm and lowered his heart rate to 30 or 40 beats per minute. That's pretty cool.

The other 60% of the film was a documentary explaining about how we humans are rapidly wiping sharks of the face of the Earth :( We have reduced global shark populations to 10% of what they were 30 or 40 years ago, and will probably drive them to extinction in the near future. And we are doing all this for the stupidest of reasons - for their fins. Shark fins are eaten in a soup and are considered a fine delicacy, even though they are tasteless and only add texture. They are also made into medicines because people think that sharks never get sick and in particular don't get cancer. There is no medical evidence to support any benefits to consuming shark fins, and in actual fact they do get cancer and the numbers are on the rise thanks to pollution of the oceans. The sharks are caught on long lines (which also catch and kill lots of other animals such as endangered species of turtle), have their fins hacked off whilst they are still alive, and then they are thrown back into the sea to bleed to death and drown. Sickening.

Anyway this is supposed to be a mini review. Overall this film was great but I wouldn't say I enjoyed it because frankly it was pretty harrowing in places. I strongly urge you to go see it though - maybe thanks to this film and the people who made it, sharks might still have a chance.

Oh yeah, and it hasn't rained since Saturday...

Pinch me, because I must be dreaming.

India Arie vs. Badly Drawn Boy

We saw two gigs back to back this week - India Arie on Monday and BDB on Tuesday. Both gigs started around 10.30pm and finished between 12.30am and 1am, and after getting up early for Cypress on Sunday morning we are both knackered already and its only Wednesday. Need to get some sleep before Whistler this weekend...

But I digress. On with the battle. Who will win? Let's find out.

In the red corner:


The support act was LeRoy Bell And His Only Friends. These guys were pretty good. Some good songs, some not so good. LeRoy himself had a strong, smooth voice that was a pleasure to listen to.

The audience of this gig was crazy! They were totally up for it, and were dancing vigorously through the support act, and even while the DJ filled before India came on stage. They were even singing along to the DJ's records. It was a great atmosphere, and felt very friendly.

India Arie came in with huge hair, sunglasses, and a posh frock. She looked like a soul diva. But within a minute she dumped all that stuff (the original hair was a wig :) ) and was getting on with it. The show was kind of theatrical in places and somehow very BIG - more performance than I expected. She stopped frequently to talk to the audience, about all kinds of crazy stuff like how she met Nelson Mandela, and how she had been late to the gig because of an upset stomach :) And the music was awesome. She has a fantastic voice of course, but the song arrangements were funked up a bit and the rhythms were infectious. Everyone in the Commodore seemed to be having a lot of fun - on and off the stage - which was great. She even finished with Ready For Love which is my favourite. What can I say. Top! I was relieved too that Steph really enjoyed it, as I kind of talked her into going...

...and in the blue corner:


Badly Drawn Boy actually had two support acts: Lizzie and Adem (sorry no link for Lizzie - I can't find anything on the internet). Lizzie was a solo singer/songwriter from the US who had some really catchy tunes and a knockout voice - kind of Jenny Lewis crossed with a bit of K.T. Tunstall. I enjoyed her set a lot. Adem also had talent, but his songs were often slow and kind of morose, and generally seemed to bring down the atmosphere a bit. He was at his best when he upped the tempo a little. He also kept telling everyone to be quiet so he could be heard - what planet are you from, mate? The jury is out on this guy.

The main event was interesting. I felt it started off pretty workmanlike, with Damon and his band scooting from one song into the next with barely a pause or a hello. Then he started making a mistake or two, and I guess he felt he needed to explain things, and pretty soon he was telling us how this was the last night of the tour and that he was exhausted and missed his family, and all sorts of stuff. He also seemed to be in a melancholy mood and mentioned some friends and family who had recently died. Anyway, it felt like the audience got much more into the whole thing after he started to talk to them so honestly, and he seemed to enjoy it more too. The performance just got better and better from there, and there were some superb tracks amongst the many he played (it was around 2.5 hours in all!). I have to say I am not the biggest fan of Badly Drawn Boy, but nevertheless I was thoroughly entertained.

And the winner is....


India Arie. For me personally, anyway. She surprised me by giving a lavish and heartfelt stage performance, and the whole atmosphere of the gig (due in large part to the crowd) was second to none. Respect due. But Badly Drawn Boy was a pretty close second - call it a points decision.

More diets

So we didn't go to Cypress the next day after all, because we were too knackered to get up early. Which turned out to be very good fortune, because the mountain closed that day due to high winds. Rah.

Our trip to Cypress got postponed until yesterday and this time we lucked out because the weather was quite nice. That statement probably sounds unremarkable until you consider that for the last two weeks it has rained here in Vancouver almost non-stop. You wouldn't believe it unless you lived here, but boy is it wet in the winter. So a "quite nice day" was very lucky, actually. The snow conditions weren't fantastic - kind of crunchy with a soft underside, and unpredictable. Steph was skiing and I did some snowshoeing and we both enjoyed ourselves and got thoroughly tired, and then came home and ordered organic pizza and scoffed it double quick. Lovely.

Not too much else has been happening for us since my last post. I went to the doctor about my stomach problems and got some blood tests, some of which were checking my liver and kidney function and some were allergy tests on certain foods. They all turned out fine. Last week I had a good week for stomach trouble, and thought it might be connected to my no-wheat diet I was on, but then at the weekend I had lots of problems so I gave up that idea. I'll keep trying to cut out different things and see what happens.

This week is going to be busy. Tonight, we are off to see India Arie at the Commodore Ballroom. I kind of talked Steph into going so I hope she doesn't hate it. Then tomorrow (!) we see Badly Drawn Boy at Richards - not ideal having the two gigs back to back but there you go. As if that wasn't enough, on Friday evening we are off to Whistler for the weekend and the last snow-based activity of the season.

Bye for now!

Mini Film Review: 300

Imagine 300 blokes with six-packs and jockstraps beating the crap out of the cast of Lawrence of Arabia, in sloooow motion. There, I just saved you the price of a ticket to see this movie.

I was expecting this film to be crap, but it wasn't. It looks gorgeous which I did expect, but there is also some decent acting in places, and a few times it made me feel the odd emotion or two. That was a pleasant surprise. The fight sequences overall are superb, mainly because they look so sumptuous although the choreography is good too. It's a pretty violent movine, but the blood on display is computer-generated and didn't really bother me - it doesn't seem particularly real. In fact the whole film has the air of a video game about it, but with better graphics. It even has a few boss fights.

It probably dawned on the makers of this film at some point that they were making a bloke movie featuring hundreds of hunky guys wearing next to nothing. I suspect that is the reason why they threw in a few scenes of gratuitous naked female flesh, because I couldn't see any other point to them. But make no mistake, this is a bloke's movie and as such it provided above average entertainment for this bloke for almost 2 hours. And Steph liked it too, but YGOMV (Your Girlfriend's Opinion May Vary).

Visitors, diets, and conferences

About time I updated this blog I think! There's been lots happening in the past few weeks.

Steph's parents visited us for two weeks. The weather was not so good as last year - more typical of February really - lots of rain. We all managed to catch colds too, which wasn't so great. So not as active as perhaps they were hoping, and no ski trip to Whistler, but overall I think they enjoyed themselves. Oh yeah, and here are the photos we took while they were around (mostly the Chinese New Year Parade).

I went to get my gums checked out with a specialist as my dentist was concerned about how far they are receding. The specialist told me I need a gum graft to save my lower front teeth from eventually falling out. I have that booked for March 23rd now, and its going to cost me $1800 - ouch. I am hoping that the health insurance might cover some of it.

Steph and I had a week on a detox diet. It was kind of an experiment to see how it affected us. We were allowed fruit and veg, nuts and some kinds of rice but that was about it. It was tough thinking of things to eat sometimes, and preparing lunch for work in the mornings was a real drag (too much vegetable chopping!) but generally it wasn't too bad. I discovered I have a problem with chickpeas! This last week, Steph has been reintroducing foods to see if they have any adverse effects.

I however, did not slowly reintroduce my foods. I went to GDC instead! I flew to San Francisco on Tuesday, and got back late last night. It was very enjoyable - some really good talks, some not so good, but educational overall. Bumped into a few old friends along the way which was nice. Had a few nice meals too; I even went to an Italian restaurant called Kuleto's (just off Union Square) that I remembered from my American road trip holiday years ago, and it was still very good. I've been regretting those meals out since though - I think the jump from a super-healthy diet to lots of rich foods was too much for my digestive system, so next week might be a trip to the doctor :( About time, really.

Today is going to be laid back I hope - surprise surprise, it's raining (a lot). I might have to do some tax return stuff - I think I owe them a good chunk of money. Boo! This evening we are going to the theatre with some friends, and tomorrow it's off to Cypress for skiing etc. (snowshoeing for me).

That's all for now folks.

New photo site is finished

I have finally finished transferring all our old photo albums from .Mac to Flickr. From now on, all our photos will go straight onto Flickr - the old .Mac site is dead. In fact, the old site will disappear mid-April when our .Mac subscription expires, so update your bookmark if you have one!

We made it to the Chinese New Year Parade on Sunday. It was very entertaining. I'll post some photos when I get round to sorting them out.

Birthdays and visitors

Monday (12th) was my birthday. Happy birthday to me! I am now 34 years old. It wasn't particularly eventful. I had to work all day, and then Steph had to work a little late in the evening as she is very busy. We made a nice jambalaya to eat when we got home though, and had a bottle of wine from our trip to the Okanagan last year - a cheeky little Gewurztraminer. Very pleasant.

Steph's parents arrived on Wednesday. They are staying with us for a fortnight. So far the weather hasn't been too great, but it could be worse too - it's not raining all the time :) I don't think they mind too much though - they are here to take it easy. We just got back from a trip to Granville Island where we bought some lovely looking sausages for tomorrow evening - we are making gourmet bangers and mash. Yum. It was John's birthday yesterday (Steph's Dad) so tonight we are going out to Cin Cin for a slap up meal. Food is the best thing, isn't it?

Tomorrow we might watch the Chinese New Year Parade if it isn't raining too much. Failing that, we will put our feet up. Hope you are having a nice weekend too!