August 31, 2010
A Rainy Morning in Vancouver
Summer in Vancouver would seem to be over, with the arrival of torrential west coast rains pouring down on our city. We'll hold out for a warm, sunny September, though, a usual state of weather affairs in Vancouver.
VanRamblings is pleased to report that 90% of the renovation of our apartment is complete, most of the remaining work involving stuffing our clothes back in our closets, washing the floors, replacing all that we store in our cupboards in their usual home, and just generally attempting to recover a semblance of a 'tidy' life that's been missing for some time now.
Amidst the chaos we were disinclined to publish on VanRamblings, a creative venture we'll set about to correct in the coming days and weeks.
August 24, 2010
VanRamblings Takes Leave of Home While Renovations Continue
As work continues on the renovation of VanRamblings' Co-op condominium apartment — drywalling, tiling and grouting in the bathroom (no use of the 'facilities' today, oh me oh my), as replacement panels are affixed to the ceiling (they have to be 'built' first), and 'boxes' are constructed to house 'the new piping' installed throughout the apartment (after which said boxes are puttied up ready for sanding later this week), with all the concomitant banging, drilling, and covering of almost the entirety of the contents of our home in plastic — we have taken our leave of Chez VanRamblings these late sunny August days to explore our Kitsilano neighbourhood.
Upon our arrival home from our journeys each day, on the recommendation of the inimitable J. B. Shayne (that's him on the left, and a svelte VanRamblings on the right), we have set about to download new lustrous music. Today, we 'acquired' The Books' new CD, The Way Out. Thus far, in the initial couple of listens, we are intrigued with this trippy art / folktronica collage. At MetaCritic, with a Metascore of 81 / 100, The Books' latest emerges as one of the most critically acclaimed albums of the year.
This early week has brought beautiful west coast weather, the mean temperature 75° Fahrenheit or 24° Celsius, with a perfect cooling breeze taking the sting out of the midday sun (of course, we've been wearing our new Neutrogena sunscreen — having 'lost' our Vichy sunscreen at the Halifax Stanfield Airport last Wednesday — and our new Frenchy's cap).
Tonight we're off to dinner with a friend, to return later in the evening, when we'll attempt to make sense of the clutter in our beleaguered apartment, and do our best to at least begin the process of bringing order to the chaos that has ensued as a consequence of the ongoing re-piping of our the entire Co-op building in which we live. Have to say, though, that Cambridge Plumbing are doing a superb job, and keeping 'the mess' to a minimum (it's just that we like to kvetch ... but, really, it's not that bad).
August 21, 2010
A Walk Along Vancouver's Spanish Banks
As a youth growing up on Vancouver's eastside, VanRamblings' parents told us that the area known as Spanish Banks 'belonged' only to the people of the west side, and that we would not be welcome to 'use' their park, nor frequent their part of town. For the entirety of our youth, our only palpable knowledge of Spanish Banks came through the photos we saw of this pristine waterfront, either in photos in the daily newspaper, or on TV.
In the late 60s, when we met the woman who would be our spouse, she —
as an habitué of Vancouver's west side (where a favourite aunt, uncle and cousins of hers lived) — pooh-poohed the nostrum of VanRamblings' parents; thus we became infrequent visitors to the patch of waterfront on Vancouver's west side, even as VanRamblings' 'parents voice' continued to remonstrate our discomfort level was somewhat alleviated, but not entirely.
In the 1980s, when we moved to the west side (long story that, the details of which we'll save for another time), we managed to overcome our undue prejudices, and by 1988 a walk along Spanish Banks and through the trails of UBC became a daily feature of our lives, as it remains to this very day.
The video published on VanRamblings on this Saturday takes in a walk, yesterday, along Spanish Banks, from Locarno Beach along and through to Tower Beach, in an area just east of the University of British Columbia.
Although Vancouver's absolutely lovely and bewitching Spanish Banks is not the Annapolis Valley's Annapolis River (about which we've written frequently in recent days, as part of our vacation travelogue), tranquil and calming, VanRamblings believes there is much to recommend about our favourite stretch of beach within the city of Vancouver (our favourite stretch of beach in British Columbia may be found along Long Beach, or Chesterman Beach, near Tofino, about which we'll write another time).
Please enjoy today's video presentation, and if you live or are visiting Vancouver may we recommend a stroll along Spanish Banks (after all, the beach is yours), one of the true natural wonders of Canada's west coast.
August 19, 2010
VanRamblings Arrives Home From Our Maritime Adventure
VanRamblings has finally arrived home from our Nova Scotia vacation.
As is our wont, we did not sleep much the early morning hours prior to our departure from Halifax Stanfield Airport. Quite honestly, VanRamblings is surprised that we made it on to the plane on time, and left behind only our Vancouver Canadians baseball cap somewhere in greater Halifax (we're prone to losing things), and had our 100+ ml Vichy sunscreen confiscated at the airport (whoops, guess we should have packed it in the suitcase ... oh well). Otherwise, all went well, and we were Toronto bound by noon (you'll notice from the video above that Airbus seat 18a's window was just a tad streaky), finding ourselves in the air for about an hour and a half.
Landing and taking off in Toronto went fine. As we were rushing from one plane to another, we stopped off at Starbucks for a coffee and date square, shortly thereafter finding ourselves in seat 12f (with a non-streaky window). The five hour jaunt from Toronto to Vancouver was a bit much, but we did manage to watch The Losers, which provided everything it promised: an action-packed comic strip adaptation, a hot, tough-as-nails 'girl' (Zoe Saldana), big explosions, and gleaming bad-ass cinematography.
The flight was uneventful, but a tad jealousy-inducing for VanRamblings. Why? Seems that everyone around us had an iPad. iPads with external keyboards, and in leather 'cases' that would act as a stand, causing the device to look like a screen. VanRamblings wants an iPad, but we'll wait for an iPad-versary, a faster, leaner, sleeker, less expensive mobile device with front-and-back facing cameras, USB and HDMI ports, an HD 16:9 widescreen, built-in flash (so we can watch YouTube videos), GPS, the ability to multitask, a longer battery life, and ... so we'll just wait for now.
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August 17, 2010
VanRamblings Bids a Fond Adieu to Our Maritime Home
VanRamblings' Maritimes vacation ended as it began: with blustery winds and rain, although not the torrential downpour with which we were greeted a couple of weeks back. In fact, as the day progressed the sun did emerge, along with a most appreciated cooling breeze to temper the heat of the day, allowing us (and many tourists) to once again appreciate Halifax in all its glory, from the Public Gardens to a rejuvenated Harbour Waterfront, where we saw Royal Caribbean's Enchantment of the Seas leaving harbour.
VanRamblings' Air Canada flight departs at 11:55 a.m. on Wednesday morning. We are almost all packed, and ready to go. Upon arising we will visit Anna's Café, on Hollis Street, which is reputed to prepare the best breakfast in town; as we will not be eating again until 9 p.m. Atlantic time, we want to fortify ourselves for the long trek home to our place of birth.
We feel ourselves fortunate for having secured our preferred window seats for the return journey to our west coast home, seat 18a from Halifax to Toronto (the same seat we had on the way out), and when we switch planes in Canada's hub city, another window seat - this time 12f, which 'Net research suggests is one of the best seats on the Airbus 320.
VanRamblings very much enjoyed our sojourn to the Maritimes, and we will miss the east coast more than words can express. Still, the time has come for us to return to the 'big city', and the many joys of our life in Vancouver.
August 16, 2010
VanRamblings' Triumphant Return to Halifax (Or Not)
Well, folks, here we are back in Halifax, and writing this post from our cozy 'dorm room' at Dalhousie University's Howe Hall on Coburg Road.
Now, just in case you're wondering, the picture above was taken at 8:17 a.m. this Monday morning, while VanRamblings was waiting outside the Annapolis Royal Inn, a bit south of town (on the road to Digby), for our Acadian (Acadien?) Lines coach to pick us up for transport to Halifax.
Once the fog lifted, the weather was great all the way to Halifax, and stayed sunny and warm in the province's capital throughout the day. By about 2:30 p.m. we got ourselves squared away at our university residence, and headed into town to continue our exploration of the city. By late afternoon, the humidity became a bit wearing, so we snuck into a cinema to see Salt, about which we were unthrilled (we would tend to agree, then, with the critics: 'basically, a thrill-less thriller'), although the film did provide a couple of hours diversion, not to mention relief from the humid conditions outside.
Truth be told, dear and constant reader, VanRamblings is feeling a bit verklempt about the prospect of returning to our west coast home. As we looked out across the Annapolis River each morning this past couple of weeks, enjoying the pastoral view and the tranquil setting, the thought now of returning to the busy-ness of the 'big city' seems to us kind of daunting.
Still, we have the Vancouver International Film Festival to look forward to (we love the annual Film Festival), and walks along Spanish Banks and on the Pacific Spirit Park trails, riding our bike through Kitsilano towards Granville Island, going out to dinner with friends at our favourite Ethiopian (or other ethnic) restaurant — a 'gift' denied to our Annapolis Royal neighbours, Corinne points out — or even returning to our work on the Downtown Eastside, where we hope we 'make a difference' (as we all wish to engage in meaningful endeavour), not to mention our regular forays to Vancouver Canadians baseball games ... well, upon reflection, there are aspects of our life in Vancouver that inexorably pull us back to our home.
August 15, 2010
Annapolis Royal, A Remembrance Of Our Maritime Vacation
Please find above a SlideFlickr pictorial slide show representing VanRamblings' summer vacation, and 60th birthday celebration, in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia. We thank Corinne for her warm hospitality, and the good folks of the Annapolis Valley for their tremendous kindness.
The slideshow is not fully complete, so in the days and weeks to come we'll fine tune the photo display, re-order parts of the slide show, and add some pictures and video. For now, though, please enjoy the current slide show.
To access a larger version of the SlideFlickr pictorial slide show above, click here. For a full screen version of the Flickr slide show above, click here.
