Hopefully clever comments about life in Vancouver, B.C. as lived by a French girl from Montreal
Tuesday, July 27, 2004
Contagious
Blogging is fun and it looks like the Blog bug bit Tucker (say that 10 times really fast). For those of you who want to see what the tall guy has to say about life (I wonder what he says about me... hum... better check to make sure...), you can visit Mr.Plow's take on the Left Coast.
But luckily, the temperature has dropped a bit tonight. It was unnaturally hot for Vancouver, high 20s to low 30s since at least Thursday. And not one cloud in the sky. Well, I can't complain, but unfortunately, our precious environment is not taking to the dry conditions very well. Trees are starting to show signs of stress, everyone's grass is permanently brown now... Obviously, there is a ban on campfires for the Coastal region. At the last count, there were 254 active fires in the province of B.C. This is down from a total of over 400, but still a big problem.
The weekend went by quickly, with no clear purpose ;)
Friday night, we tried a Japanese steakhouse in Vancouver called Kobe. It was interesting, the chefs come to your table to put on a show and prepare your meal. I found the food to be nothing impressive (I had steak and prawns) and the prices a bit exaggerated, but we were out using up our Entertainment Guide coupons, so the bill was reasonable. I don't think I would return if I had to pay full price.
On Saturday, it was too hot to stay outside, so Tucker and I did a bit of outdoors shopping. I bought a hydration pack and hiking poles for upcoming expeditions, Tucker got himself a new Swiss army knife, and we purchased some missing camping items. The hydration pack will be very helpful, as I was getting quite tired of carrying a plastic bottle on hikes. The system is quite a wonderful invention, there is a soft plastic bladder, ended by a tube that then runs along the strap of a fitted backpack. The backpack is insulated so the water stays cold. At the end of the tube, there is a rubber piece on which you bite to drink the water. Look 'ma, no hands :-)
Sunday was another hot day. I spent some of the day reading and finished A Recipe for Bees from Gail Anderson-Dargatz. This is the third book I read from this author, and this last one was just as good as The Cure for Death by Lightning, which I truly enjoyed. A Rhinestone Button was a deception, unfortunately. I did not connect with its characters as I did for the two other books.
After dinner, I went to see The Bourne Supremacy. The movie was excellent, if you enjoy spy action movies. As a sequel to The Bourne Identity, it did not deceive us.
Last night, Tucker, Jennifer, Dennis, Scott, Ivan and myself decided to get some exercise. We climbed the Grouse Grind!
For those of you who have never been to Vancouver or who haven't heard about the Grind, it's a tough climb (quite vertical) up Grouse mountain on the North shore, all the way to the Peak Chalet, at 1128m (3700ft) of elevation. Now, I doubt that the Grind makes you hike 1128m in one shot, but it's a pretty decent workout. Actually, many residents from Vancouver and the near-by West Vancouver do the Grind on a regular basis. It's nature's own stairmaster.
I managed to do the Grind in 1 hour 17 minutes, which is a pretty slow time. The top male and top female climbers do the Grind in 31 and 35 minutes respectively. That's crazy!
Well, I intend to do the Grind a few more times this Summer, maybe I will manage to shave a few minutes off this time. It will be good preparation before hiking the Lions in the Fall, an eight-hour hike.
Did you know that the University of Sherbrooke (my alma matter) is turning 50 this year and Canada Post has created a commemorative stamp for the occasion? You can see the stamp here.
Since Tucker and I go camping and hiking quite often, I've decided to start learning about some of the flowers and trees we come across during our excursions. During our last camping trip in the Okanagan, we saw Columbian Lilies (Lilium columbianum), some Western Columbine (Aquilegia formosa) and some Common Red Paintbrush (Castilleja miniata). My pictures of these beautiful flowers did not turn out so well, but I am quite proud of the Fireweed picture I took:
Fireweed (Epilobium angustifolium) on a Southern section of the Kettle Valley Trail. Copyright MKS 2004
Today, I treated myself to a toy I've been wanting to get for a while: a PDA. I have had enough of paper agendas, sticky notes and copying my contact list over every year. It also helps that I was the happy recipient of a gift card from Staples (or Bureau en Gros in Quebec), present of my very good friend Lara when she visited Vancouver last June.
My next step is to start using the e-post service from Canada Post (http://www.epost.ca). This is a very clever service that allows you to receive your bills electronically, in collaboration with your bank's online service. When I receive a new bill from a mailer (a company that normally sends you bills by snail mail), I get a little note in my online banking session. I can then pay my bill like I would the paper version, but without, well, the paper version. Bye bye misplaced bills, recycled envelopes and shredded bills. Unfortunately, there is currently only one bill I can pay through this service. I'm confident the service will gain popularity very quickly!
I've been pretty terrible at keeping my personal Web site updated, so I thought I'd give a try to blogging. I want to share some of my experiences and thoughts about living on the West Coast, let family and friends back East know what I've been up to and record my impressions of some of the fantastic and sometimes strange things my life is currently about.
I hope you enjoy reading what the frog has to say about BC! :-)
