At our local tonight….

Sitting out in the wonderful sunshine then off to our local for a split fish and chips,  Red Truck,  and music,  and more views…watching so many people enjoying the lovely evening.

Another beautiful day in Vancouver...

Yesterday evening we sat out on our balcony until almost sundown and we were just in shirtsleeves…sipping red wine of course.

Wonderfully warm today and the day made even warmer by joining Hayne and Jenny for Dim Sum at Long's Noodle House.  As usual,  we left the ordering to them.  Lots of great goodies including these two dishes that come highly recommended by a food blogger.

http://www.seriouseats.com/2013/11/must-order-soup-dumplings-wine-chicken-longs-noodle-house-chinese-vancouver.html

 Wine chicken

Soup Dumplings

I love this concept...

Placemaking comes to Vancouver

http://www.vancouversun.com/Placemaking+comes+Vancouver/9785228/story.html

Calling all cat lovers…Cat Café coming to Vancouver!

A friend of Richard's is trying to get this started and is doing crowd source funding.  I think it's a super idea so take a look and help her out if you agree.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/catfe--2/x/7305812#home

Video on Cat Cafés

http://www.wimp.com/catcafes/

A relaxing lunch at The University Club in Victoria

We saw Ian in the morning and he was enjoying the iPod shuffle we brought him.  Richard had downloaded lots of his favourite music on it.  Then we met Elaine for lunch at the University Club.  It was a very relaxing place to be and the cherry blossom trees at the entrance were just fabulous.  They are the variety of the late bloomers as most have already seen their best in the city.

 There is some wonderful First Nation's art at the club.

 Cherry Blossom Trees

 Lots of wonderful rhodos as well.

 The pond is always soothing to look at. On the left there are some turtles but hard to see in the photo.

Into Victoria

Jim,  Richard,  and I came into Victoria yesterday to see Ian.  We stayed overnight at the Coast Harbourside and had a great dinner at the Blue Crab.  I had the Dungeness whole crab and Jim had the Seafood Bowl.  When we arrived we were greeted with a poster that said we were "Guests of the Day" which meant an upgrade to a waterfront room and a $20 voucher for the restaurant…great stuff!

And we had some great swims.  I think the swimming was really good for my knee.  The pool is indoor/outdoor and has wonderful views of the harbour…a real treat.

It also just happened to be Richard's good friend, Kristen's birthday yesterday so he stayed with him and his family and celebrated his birthday.

We've really been enjoying the view and watching the Coho come in,  the whale watching boats, the seaplanes,  etc,

 Yesterday,  the day began with the Sun Run…nice to miss the several hours of cheering and "whoo hoo".

 A lovely surprise!

Views from our room.

Ittty Bitty Book Review: "The White Tiger" by Aravind Adiga

This won The Booker in 2008 and is a rather amazing satire of India.   The protagonist/narrator is a very bad man really and yet there is something admirable about his spunk in dealing with the corruption in India.  It's really hard to know how to react but even though he is a murderer and caused the murder of his family,  the second last sentence of the book almost redeem him:

"I'll say it was all worthwhile to know,  just for a day, just for an hour,  just for a minute, what it means not to be a servant."

It's a choice of my retired teachers' book club so it will be interesting to see what others have to say.

The earth moved….

Well,  a 6.6 earthquake off Port Hardy on Vancouver Island.  I was sitting and felt it a bit but then thought it was just the chair that was loose.  We have to tighten our recliners from time to time but our knees are too wrecked at the moment to do it.  Probably good it happened as we thought about the best place to "drop, cover,  and hold on".

Easter dinner thanks to Stephos….

Richard came for Easter dinner last night and we split a roast lamb and a lamb souvlaki dinner between the three of us.  Great portions and super value!

French Café

I went to the Vancouver Newcomer's "French Café"  activity this morning and it was really fun and I got to speak a lot of French.  The group started when we were in Palm Springs and has been meeting the first and third Monday mornings at The Sylvia.

Itty Bitty Book Review: "Cockroaches"

 "Cockroaches" by Jo Nesbo

Quite the thriller with lots of twists and turns.  Really glad I got introduced to Jo Nesbo.  Lots of stuff to read by him.

Last night's skies

If there is any sun or brightness to be seen,  we see it here.   While constant sunshine, blue skies, and warmth is great,  it is also neat to have "weather" and changing skies.

Reminder of our wonderful desert home!   Since we came back to Vancouver a couple have started to welcome us with blooms.

Wonderful lunch with John and Carol

Lots of laughs and lively conversation with Carol and John and of course a wonderful meal cooked by Carol…fabulous salmon and delicious Pavlova with every fruit imaginable for dessert.  Merci beaucoup!  And we were welcomed by a lovely wood fire…a real treat.

 The elusive Mr. Darcy did make an appearance but was trying for a quick escape.

 Jim showing Carol a site for electronic books for her iPad.

Mr. Darcy did decide to stay a while…albeit at a safe distance.

Another old haunt….Cloud 9 for dinner.

It's like we never left…favourite server on duty and same tapas menu.  We had the dry ribs,  sweet chill chicken wings,  and kalamari…better kalamari than I remember.  We hadn't had this for a while.

A good Good Friday

So nice that people have a nice day to get out and enjoy all Vancouver has to offer.  Went on a gentle walk to mail a letter and took a few photos of stuff I love.

 The Laughing Men always bring a smile.

 Always wonderful flower displays…love the purple tulips.

Possibly the busiest hotdog stand in the world!

A dark and stormy night….

We had dinner at The Sylvia last night and took in their music…very nice mellow jazz….a son and father team.  We actually drove since it was pouring rain and given our bad knees we didn't want to fall or get completely soaked.  Rather nice to go from underground parking to underground parking.  We never thought The Sylvia would be our local!

Quite the windstorm here last night but a beautiful sunny morning has greeted us.

It was so cosy and we had a great seat where we could see the ocean and trees and the neon S sign and a good view of the band.  The photo doesn't quite do it justice.  We treated ourselves to a Spanish Coffee after our Red Truck Ale and a split fish and chips.

Madmen: The Last Season

We bought the series on iTunes and watched the first episode last night.  First shot was with Roger entangled in limbs from the previsous night's orgy….loved it!  I like him the best.  Not many of the others are very likeable at all.  Was it really 7 years ago that Richard gave us Season One on DVD for Christmas?

Will be interesting to see how it all ends.  Continuing with lots of cool stuff on Netflix and I see Season 6 is there now.  Even though we bought the series last year I think we may have missed one or two since we were going through moving to another apartment,  taking possession of our Palm Springs condo and doing the basics of getting it fixed up,  and moving out of our house of over 30 years.

Amazing how we did it and lived to tell the tale!  Good thing we didn't get our knee injuries at this time last year.

The warm sunny weather has been great but…!

Seeing the clouds and West Coast fog and rain I realize how much I love this weather as well…perhaps not all the time but I do feel bonded to it somehow.

Bento Boxes for lunch today at Denman Sushi

It was great to have our Bento Box lunch today….chicken teriyaki for me and beef teriyaki for Jim.  We prefer Tanpopo since you get 3 pieces of shrimp tempura rather than just the one at Denman Sushi but everything else is great.

The Daily Catch Seafood now on Davie!

Wow…this is a great addition and has been open since Feb.  We really needed a fish store around here so really pleased.  And a new discovery….candied Sablefish…wow.  And the hand peeled shrimp was some of the best I've ever seen.

A wonderful afternoon

Grace and Richard came to visit and we all had a great time.   Grace brought her special sourdough crackers she baked….wow…really!  And she makes paella….looking forward to sharing our recipes and making paella together.

First swimmer we've seen

He spent about 5 minutes in and seemed to be enjoying himself.  I doubt we'll test the waters until June.

 Lots of sailboats out today.