Taste of summer

Until recently, the weather hadn't really given us a decent taste of spring with mornings usually in the single digits, and afternoon temperatures not going much beyond 12. However, last Thursday, someone flicked on the summer switch and wham! Sunny and warm weather for the next few days. I had forgotten how hot 30-degree weather can be. Nice.

This is a long weekend in BC, even better to fully enjoy the beautiful weather. On Saturday, I did a bit of shopping in the afternoon. I hit Main street which has a combination of thrift and second-hand stores, in addition to being home for several local designers. If you are looking for some unique frocks, this is the place to shop. I walked up and down Main from Broadway to about 23rd. I stopped by a few designer shops, including twigg&hottie and Narcissist. twigg&hottie have beautiful asymmetric clothes which fit perfectly if you are a small size, but don't necessarily translate well to a size 9-10. Narcissist has wonderful dresses and I tried a few, but somehow wasn't sold on any. I then visited Devil May Wear on 21st. There, I fell in love. Not only does Devil May Wear have wearable designs, but the clothes are also made of eco-friendly fabrics: organic cotton, bamboo, even some bamboo from Canada (as opposed to grown in China, as is most bamboo used in fabric). I had a chance to chat with the designer, Steph Ostler, who is such a lovely woman. You can tell she's really excited about what she does and the clothes she designs. She picked a few items from the rack for me to try, as she was describing where the fabric was from, how she came up with the ideas for the design. I settled on two items: a brown tank top with a seafoam lace trim and straps, and a black tube-top summer dress in soft bamboo. I also picked up a few pairs of earrings, not from Steph but from other designers she showcases at her boutique. If you have never visited the store, not only are the clothes affordable and carefully sourced, but they also look fantastic. I'm a fan!

Saturday night was dinner at Monk McQueens. This restaurant has one of the best patios in town and a decent selection of seafood. I won't say great seafood because their menu doesn't seem to follow the Ocean Wise guidelines. I should have asked questions about where the seafood was caught and how, but I forgot. I need to build that into my dining etiquette. It's true that not being part of the Ocean Wise program doesn't mean you don't serve sustainable seafood. However, Ocean Wise is a great promotional tool so I would wonder why a restaurant wouldn't sign up if they qualified. I had dinner with Scott, Sherri and Brian. We ordered some mussels in a spicy tomato broth to share, and I had grilled sablefish with a ratatouille side and mixed-seafood cake. The food was delicious, the sun was coming down over False Creek and the temperature was still warm at 9 p.m. Simply dreamy. After dinner, the gang came back to my place for a drink or two. We intended on going out, but my midnight, everyone was ready for bed.

Sunday morning started fairly early, as I wanted to eat a decent breakfast before my spinning class at 10:45. I went to class, then rushed back home to shower and grab a bite, because Sarah was picking me up around 1. We had plans to go for a hike, along with Sarah's friend Candice. Around 2, we picked up Candice and Charlie, her Pug-Boston Terrier mix dog. Charlie is quite the adorable little creature. He's a small dog but he has a lot of personality and always greets everyone he meets with a wagging tail and so much enthusiasm.

We drove to the North Shore, to Deep Cove as we were going to hike the Baden Powell trail between Deep Cove and Lynn Canyon. One way, it's approximately 13 kilometers on well-marked, fairly-easy terrain. The first part of the trail gains a bit of elevation until you reach the lookout, so it's a good workout, but the rest of the trail is very walkable. We set out around 2:45. Unfortunately, we never made it to Lynn Canyon as we took an unfortunate detour which added almost an hour to our trip. By the time we backtracked onto the Baden Powell and reached the crossing in the residential area, we realized that we still had over an hour of hiking to do and it was getting late. I uploaded a few pictures from the hike on Flickr.

Needless to say that I slept quite well last night. Today, the weather is cooler and it's raining, so I'm going to take it easy. I was going to take the level 2 climbing movement class tonight, but my legs and knees are a bit sore, so I decided to pass. The class is all about using your legs when you climb, and right now, my legs don't want to be used!

Get with the program

Winter in Vancouver is a rough season for shoes and boots. I should know, all my footwear has sprung a leak at one point or the other. Then you let them dry, spray them with a sealant and maybe your feet will remain dry for a few more weeks.

This winter, I decided that I've had enough of wet feet. I went out yesterday and bought two pairs of waterproof boots. The first is more like a shoe, it's something I can wear on long walks in the rain from Clarks. My pair is dark brown, not black. The second pair is more for work and going out. They are knee-high boots from Elle (yes, same as the magazine) in waterproof leather. I bought a pair in brown, since I already have knee-high boots in black.

I'm also going to purchase a water-repellent solution that I can use to treat my Kanuk. It was always water resistant, but after five years, it doesn't stay as dry. It needs a good cleaning first, then a water-repellent treatment. The products are sold at MEC.

Bring it on!

Recovering

I haven't been sick, or working out any harder than usual, but this afternoon, as I returned home, I feel like I just ran a half marathon. Minus the pain.

Let me start by saying this: I hate Metrotown. For those of you who don't live around here, Metrotown is a mall in Burnaby. A large, busy, bright mall with 470 stores. I didn't really intend to go there, but my cell phone was having problems, I couldn't get it to charge anymore. It was either not registering the charger, or warning me that is was "Unable to Charge". Then the battery died. I didn't want to take a chance and decided to bring it to the tech counter for Fido, on Kingsway in Burnaby. Now, that wouldn't be too far if you had a car, but by public transit, it's a longer trip.

I had originally thought I'd take the 99B-Line to Broadway station, but seeing how the traffic on Broadway was immobile (calling Cambie a bottleneck is an understatement), I took the 15 heading downtown and walked to the Stadium station.

It was easy enough to find the Fido shop and the problem was solved quickly. On my way back, I was going to avoid the mall all together and head directly for the SkyTrain, but then I remembered I needed some makeup from M.A.C and the Bay was right there. That's where I made the mistake of walking out of the Bay, through Metrotown, towards the station.

Let me say this again. I hate Metrotown. And Saturday was probably the worst time to be there. It was insanely busy and noisy. The recycled air did nothing to help. As I was walking past stores, all I could think of was how quickly I could get out of there. And how much the clothes in the stores looked exactly the same. Didn't matter which store I was passing by. All the same. I felt almost dizzy by the time I left the mall. The fresh air felt so good.

The trip back was more pleasant, I got out of the bus at Broadway and Main, then walked all the way to MEC. Now, here was another place that was busy, but it wasn't the same. People were quietly strolling around, checking out the new gear, trying on jackets and PFDs. I bought a pair of Keen sandals that are made for paddling and other water sports. I also bought a couple of t-shirts and a pair of pants that have a polar lining on the inside. Great for cold evenings when you go camping. I've been thinking of going with a few friends on the Victoria day long weekend.

MEC continues to impress me. The store has the largest selection of organic cotton clothing I've seen. They will contribute 1% of your purchase to environmental initiatives. When you buy shoes or boots, they will ask if you want to recycle the box (they return them to the manufacturer, I assume). And if you don't take a bag, they'll contribute an additional $0.05. Over a single purchase, it doesn't seem like a big deal, but over one year of purchases from all their members, it makes a big difference.

I walked back home from MEC, seeing how the bus was stuck in the Cambie bottleneck going West. I think I made it to Oak faster ;)

I was going to workout when I returned home, but that's not going to happen. Tomorrow morning.

Sore

I love long weekends, especially when I had completely forgotten about the extra day off. On Tuesday, I watched the hockey game (Vancouver-Calgary? "watch" is a very strong word, more like "glanced at") and had dinner with friends. Stephanie asked if I had any plans for the long weekend. My answer was "long weekend, what long weekend?" I knew Easter was coming up, but I didn't add it up to getting Friday off. Sometimes, I think that's a bit sad ;)

Friday was beautiful. Warm and sunny, almost 20 degrees outside. I went for a long run before lunch, well, long for my poor legs that hadn't hit the pavement in a little while. Breathing was fine, knees and calf muscles not as much. It also didn't help that I went for a long walk on West 4th in the afternoon. Boy do I feel sore. But I did find what I was looking for: a fabulous pair of jeans. Shopping for jeans is just as hard as shopping for shoes. It takes a while to find a perfect pair that fits AND looks good.

So, what are my long-weekend plans? Well, I originally planned to have Lara, Gerri and Charles over for dinner tonight, but Lara is too busy studying herbs and has a big exam on Tuesday. OK, I can understand the crunch of the end of the semester. Instead, Gerri and I (and maybe Charles, once the Montreal-Toronto game is over) are eating out, hopefully at Vij's (I say hopefully because the place is always busy and doesn't take reservations). Then, we'll pretty much go with the flow, maybe head over to Yaletown somewhere for drinks. Scott and a few friends also said they would give me a shout if they head out, we'll go meet them somewhere.

Sunday will be a day to catch up with some work (yeah, yeah, spare me the lecture) so I can avoid 10-hour days next week. Sunday night, I'm meeting Rafael for a live show downtown. Can't remember the venue, but it sounded promising.

Happiness is... (part 2)

1. Going shopping for a bikini, FINDING a very cute bikini in the first store you hit and then being told the price tag is only $30.

2. Walking 22 kilometers around Vancouver (wait, the happy part is coming up), taking in the sights and sounds of an entire city enjoying the summer heat and waking up the morning after NOT feeling sore at all.

3. Going for dinner with friends, at a restaurant that has a beautiful terrace overlooking False Creek and being able to WALK to the restaurant in 10 minutes flat.

4. Knowing that your best friend is back from her two-week vacation in Haiti, she DIDN'T get kidnapped and she brings back a gift of local rhum.

This was truly a weekend to remember.

Sunny weekend on the West Coast

It took a while before we had any preview of spring, but this weekend was simply beautiful. A bit windy and cool on Saturday, but today was amazing. I went for a long run this morning, 16km, it felt great, I paced myself nicely and tried my new inhaler. I can't say I saw any major difference, if only for the fact that I had this funny taste in my mouth (bitter, like medication ;)).

I had a pleasant weekend. On Saturday, I went to get a hair cut and highlights, just in time for the sunny days. Then, I did a bit of shopping because gorgeous hair deserves a nice outfit. I bought a skirt, a tank top, and a 3/4 top that ties in the front. I also bought a pair of white sandals with interchangeable flowers on them. You can pick the flower to match your outfit, how neat is that? And they are really comfy. Then, I had a nap, I was tired after going to bed late on Friday (I had dinner and watched a movie with my friend Craig). I needed to be rested to go out later.

Saturday night, Lara and I ate dinner at Bridges on Granville Island, yummy food and a beautiful view of the waterfront. Raf gave us a call and asked if we were doing anything later. We told him to meet us for drinks at Sandbar, also on Granville Island. At Sandbar, we had a blast watching the cougars hound the young men in the place (cougars are older women hanging around in bars, not dressing up their age, and hunting for young men). Needless to say that a few of the predators had their eyes on Raf, he's such a cutie. Then, whenever the DJ was playing half decent music (which was not often, unfortunately), we started dancing, sometimes even salsa dancing on music that wasn't salsa at all. Raf took several pictures of the evening, they should be on his blog sometime tomorrow.

Today, well, there was running. Then, a call to bro and sis, to catch up on the latest news. Then, I did a bit of cleaning at home, my place was such a mess, and also cleaned my balcony. The white banister was more green than white and needed a good wash. The flower boxes had more brown than green, I took out all the dead plants and will buy new plants for the summer next weekend. I also called mom, because today is mother's day :-) Wish I could be at dinner with the family, that's for sure...