One word

I spent a great evening last night with Gerri, Lara, Charles, and Joe (who joined us after dinner). Charles' birthday was last week, Gerri's is this week, since both Lara and I are dealing with the heavy workload of the end of the semester, we tried to celebrate both birthdays on the same night.

Everyone met at my place for a glass of wine, then we headed out to Relish. This is the second time I eat at this restaurant and both times have been quite pleasant. Relish has four menus, Casual North American, Asian, Mediterranean (mostly Italian), and West Coast Fine Dining. Usually, when restaurants try to master too many types of cuisine, they never really do any one of them really well. Relish is an exception. Their menu is also reasonably priced and they have a varied wine selection. We had a wonderful dinner.

Then, we headed out to George, our repeat spot for an after-dinner drinks. We didn't stay out late, both Lara and I were looking at busy days today.

Lara talked about a book she was reading where the author was using one word to describe cities/countries around the world (can't remember the reference, I'll let you know if I find it). So we started thinking about words for Canadian cities. Montreal was "sexy", Toronto was "ambitious", Quebec city was "charming"... when it came to Vancouver, Charles came up with the best word: proper. I think "proper" reflects well our view of Vancouver. Mind you, I think the choice of word depends on where you come from and where you've lived.

This said, I don't think that our little group can claim "properness", if that's indeed how one would describe Vancouver. We were asked twice last night if we were from out of town. Gerri has lived here for over ten years, I've been here for four. But apparently, we do not come across as Vancouverites. Because we typically switch very rapidly from French to English and then back to French, most people can guess that we all come from Montreal, although our waiter last night thought we were from Paris. I think this speaks at length to how nicely dressed we all were ;)

My one word for Vancouver these days: rainy. Today's storm means we're probably stuck boiling our water for another few days. The color of the water had greatly improved yesterday, but I'm afraid that today's heavy rain is going to once again fill the reservoir with all kinds of sediments.

This is the song I'm listening to: When the Night Feels My Song, Bedouin Soundclash.