Blindspots

I think most countries have "blindspots" and I think France's acceptance of sexual harassment and worse especially when powerful men are the perpetrators is one. Tim posted this article on Facebook and I liked it a lot because as well as being critical it also pointed out all the wonderful things about France. However, I will still continue to love France and the French and I suspect the author, Katha Pollitt, feels the same despite the "Dear John" letter.

The Nation: Your Movies Were Boring Anyway, France : NPR


But I think I must point out one of Canada's blindspots and that is the acceptance of the brutality in our national game of hockey. I'm loving these playoff games and will be thrilled if the Canucks win. Not quite sure why I became a hockey fan overnight since I don't remember watching a game with any interest before. I guess that's why I didn't realize how brutal it was.

I had a bit of a heads up on this after a conversation with a young couple we got talking to while having lunch in Cassis, France. Soccer and the World Cup became a topic of conversation then hockey was mentioned. The fellow's girlfriend knew nothing about the game so the man began to explain it to her and describe the brutality. The woman started looking at us rather strangely as if to say, "Gee, they seemed like a nice older couple but they come from a country that has this brutal game as a national sport."

Yes...our blind spot, but hey, "GO CANUCKS GO"!


All legal hits in Canada's national game. I posted this YouTube clip for anyone reading who isn't familiar with hockey.

But let's end on a positive note...market day in Carqueiranne when EVERYONE is happy!


Market Day in Carqueiranne.

GO CANUCKS GO!

Photos compliments of Don.


Spotted off the the coast of Vancouver Island!


Canucks at the table

Harmony and Grandma come to visit

Harmony and Grandma Kerry came to visit today and it was great to see them. Harmony enjoyed the contents of her "magic box" and loved being spun around in the recliner...such fun! And she found the perfect stool...

Our first lawn bowling lesson

We finally got to our first lawn bowling lesson tonight...rain, the Canucks, aches and pains, etc. have intervened to prevent us from starting earlier. It was fun and the folks there are very friendly. A bit hard on my knees...I realize how decrepit I am in that regard.

Seems they have a bar-b-q most Fridays weather permitting...$4 for a hamburger and $3 for beer or wine. Pretty hard to beat that.

Squirrly Drama

I felt sorry for this no doubt female squirrel being harassed by the male. Just guessing. Poor thing did try to make her escape but then went back as she was chased and caught...out of the frying pan into the fire. No sign of them at the moment.

Sunshine!

Woke up to sunshine today and so far has continued. We had a wonderful lunch out on our deck watching the world go by. Wonderful that folks got a good day on the weekend to enjoy themselves.

Lunch was mussels and garlic toast...and wine, of course. Now, this is a real keeper. The mussels were from Capers...a pound in a butter and garlic sauce that you microwave for four minutes. They are from PEI and were fabulous and only $6.95. I'm sure I would pay more than that for a pound of mussels at a seafood store. They are vacuum packed and were good for about 10 days so I think we'll definitely have these on hand especially during the summer.

The garlic toast was a product at "No Frills" called Texas Toast and was a perfect accompaniment. This product was on sale for two bucks...16 pieces of toast. We had two pieces each for lunch and it was a perfect quantity. I think we'll have this on hand as well as it can be frozen easily.

I will continue to do most of my shopping at the Robson Street Safeway but No Frills that I walk to with my wheeled cart has some great products (President's Choice) and great buys so it's fun to go there as well to pick up a few things.

Speaking of shopping at Safeway, just in the time we've been here and not really focusing on it much I have collected enough Airmiles to get $175 worth of Keg gift cards. The Robson Street Safeway often has these bonus Airmile things like, spend $100 and get 150 miles (395 miles gets you a $50 Keg card). I seem to spend $100 even if I go just to pick up a few things.

Boston (scratch that) Vancouver Pizza

Everyone's in the swim of it...Canuck fever! Boston Pizza has changed its name just like the Shark Club Bar and Grill became Vancouver Club Bar and Grill during the semi-finals.

Gee, John Spring, I'm sorry to hear you're a Bruins fan because we ("we're all Canucks")_ are going to maul the Bruins as today's Vancouver Sun's headline declared...:)

Boston Pizza

Quite a rainstorm today....

Loved this boat that went by today...very much like an E.J. Hughes boat, I think.


We had quite a rainstorm today, then sun in the later pm...went for a walk and dropped into the Friday wine tasting at the Denman Place wine store. They also always have some goodies supplied by the Coast Plaza Hotel. Then to imbibe some wine in the sunshine on our deck. I had this wretched root canal surgery Thursday and wasn't supposed to drink anything until 48 hours later. However, the swelling actually started to go down after a glass of wine and it wasn't supposed to start going down until 48 hours later...so there!

Ever wake up in someone else's bed?

Don sent me this today...thought it was quite cute!

Ever the optimist....

I had a tower fan delivered from Staples today. I'm very pleased with the look and the small amount of space it takes compared to our big old pedestal one. Lots of speeds, timer, and even a remote. Seem very effective but hardly needed today with yes, that's 58 F on the outdoor thermometer.

GO CANUCKS GO!

Quite the game last night...what a goal at 14 seconds to go to tie it up for the Canucks. Then to get (finally) a rather flucky goal to win and head towards the Stanley Cup finals. Vancouver will be going wild if they win.

The sun shines...finally!

An nice walk in the evening yesterday...was a lovely end of the day.


The Second Beach Pool opened this weekend (took this photo Sunday night) but not too many takers...a bit dreary for swimming outdoors but today it was great.


Enjoying our deck and the passing parade as usual...

It was a pretty good day today...so much so that we went swimming at Second Beach pool and sat on our deck for hours imbibing and enjoying the sun. And the Canucks won last night without it being a nailbiter....hey, the Canucks are big news here in Vancouver.

Weather

"Feast" at Memphis Blues.

Thank goodness we took advantage of the nice weather Friday since we're back to rain and clouds. Friday we went to Commercial Drive for lunch and picked a restaurant where you could sit outside in the sun...Memphis Blues Barbeque House. It was great and we must go back and try their "feast" one day. Since we were going out for dinner we had something light.

I see Richard is getting great weather in Arizona...sunny and low 30's. Donna and Neil are getting rain and possible thunderstorms in Salt Lake City where they start their tour of the National Parks. Hope things improve for them. I found her blog posting on the Mormon buildings, choir, search for her ancestors, etc. very interesting.


Donna's Report

My other wonderful cousin....

Carol, John, and me.

Carol made a wonderful dinner as usual...what a great cook! John has done a great job renovating the kitchen. A super evening and we even got a glimpse of the elusive Mr. Darcy...what a handsome fellow!





Update from yesterday:

And then later on in the afternoon, my other wonderful cousin, John, stopped on his bike to say hello (we were sitting on the balcony) on his bike ride to the British Properties and possibly Cypress Bowl. We have dinner at John and Carol's tonight so will hear if he made it to Cypress Bowl. Makes me tired thinking about it!

Quite a day for family. John is the son of my mother's sister and Bonnie and Georgia are the daughters of one of her brothers. A highlight of our family gatherings together was the sumptuous smorgasbord dinner my Auntie Florence (John's mom) prepared at Christmas time. This was in keeping with our Swedish background. My grandmother was born in Sweden and immigrated as a young woman.

The dinner was followed by a game of charades and carol singing. I don't think any of us will forget "Mary had a swarm of bees" as one song title that my Uncle Doug (John's dad) found on the Christmas carol sheet published by the Sun newspaper. That one really had us stumped. And also sometimes some bagpipe playing by my Uncle Doug to honour his Scottish heritage.

My wonderful cousins...

Georgia and me.


Bonni and Georgia.


Bonni and me.

Had a great lunch and chinwag today with my wonderful cousins, Bonni and Georgia. They loved our apartment and our families had so many picnics and happy times in this area.

Let's hope this is in the past for a while at least

I loved Greg Parry's cartoon in the Vancouver Sun yesterday.

Our 43rd Wedding Anniversary

We received a great goody package from Don and Elaine yesterday and a super card. Elaine always manages to find the best cards for all occasions...we have a boxful!

Thanks, Guys, you are such good friends!

There are some who will be getting some sunshine....

Richard managed to get two weeks off before he starts his new job and is heading to Tucson, Arizona Wednesday for a week to see a friend. They might even get into Mexico for a few days.

Donna and Neil are also heading off Wednesday for a trip down south to visit places in the "old west".

Maybe we'll all luck out too this weekend and get a few rays of sunshine...

Susan and Alan on the Ile of Mull, Scotland

I was so pleased to hear that Susan and Alan could go on their holiday to Mull and to their English Country Dancing event. It does look quite beautiful...reminds me of the Isle of Skye.

Seen in passing....

When I was shopping at the Robson Safeway the other day I came back to a Mustang just like our old one parked beside our new car...wasn't our old car, though.



We saw this skunk happy as you please right around the Stanley Park Lawn Bowling pitch and I realized I hadn't seen or smelt a skunk for a long time, if ever, on the Island. Googled and found out that there are no skunks (or porcupines) on the Island.


It was interesting to watch this squirrel. He obviously wasn't too happy about us being so close but had to nibble some of his nut before he could carry it in his mouth and move to higher in the tree.

Another view of my wonderful freighters...

This photo taken on the way to UBC via 4th Avenue.

"Vancouver Honeymoon"

I thought this old rather cheesy tourist promo made in 1960 was quite interesting and amusing. It was playing along with other old Vancouver films at the Rio Theatre as part of a documentary film festival going on at the moment. This was the only title that was available on YouTube.

Good news for our visitors

We now have a West End Residential Parking Permit so now we can park on the surrounding streets and let our visitors park in our underground space. It seems like they now have the summer rates up so parking in the Park's Board lot is $3 an hour until 9pm. I think it was $2 an hour until 6pm before. I guess it's a good thing they have winter and summer rates but a little confusing for people.

Happy Anniversary to Roger and Kerry!

Good on Donna for having all these great photos of the day in 1969!

Donna's Report

Mother's Day

At the Boathouse.

Mother's Day was pretty busy...brunch at the Boathouse in Kits which was a little disappointing since I was really looking forward to the Dungeness crab legs and they were a bit dried out. But we had the Pacific Breeze Killer Cab with the rest of the meal and it went great...I do love that wine!

Then Tim and Thea came over for the day from Victoria to see Ewa and Philip and they all came over for a drink in the afternoon. Just great to see them all!

Then Richard over for dinner...a perfect ending to a super day.


Evening walk.

Don and Elaine come to Vancouver

It was really great to see the Curlings these past two days. They arrived Thursday and fortunately they were out at the ferry early to catch the 3pm as the 1pm was the one that crashed into the dock. We had a casual meal here on Thursday since it had been a tiring day and they were caught in the worst of the rush hour.

Then on Friday we went out to a private wine tasting at Pacific Breeze Winery in New Westminster. I don't remember when Jim and I had last driven out to New West along Kingsway so was very interesting to see the changes. Pacific Breeze is a "garage winery" that sources grapes in Washington, Oregon, and California. It seems B.C. wineries keep all their best grapes for themselves...makes sense.

They focus on "big reds and luscious whites" and they really do deliver! I think we got an extra special tour since we knew wine. We got to do barrel tastings which isn't usually the case. I figured that an oak barrel was an oak barrel but it seems there are three forests in France and the oak from each one is a bit different and has a different effect on the wine. We got to taste the same wine from the three different barrels and it was definitely different. Also, barrels are "toasted" to different levels and that makes a difference. All new to Jim and me but not Don and Elaine....the wine aficianados extraordinaire! And of course we all bought some wonderful examples of the wine.

Then to the Stanley Park Fish House for dinner....excellent!


I don't imagine these will last long...


The barrel tasting was a real treat.


They just got started in 2005 and first wine released in 2007 but they've won quite a few medals already.


A great rainy day activity.


A super ending to the visit.


Pacific Breeze Winery - Serving Vancouver and the Lower Mainland | These outstanding wines are cellared by Pacific Breeze Winery right here in New Westminster, B.C.

A wonderful early Mother's Day present!

Richard has just been offered and accepted a job as an Instructional Designer for electronic learning at a company in Richmond called Aeroinfo Systems which is a Boeing Canada company. We're really thrilled for him!

He finishes his teaching practicum this next week, then a week off, then he starts his new job. He has a glowing report from his sponsor teacher and he can take a leave from the teaching program and finish the last three months at another time.

We think it's great opportunity for him since teaching jobs locally are pretty non-existent at the moment. He already has been offered a teaching job in China but this way we get to keep him here...yes, a wonderful Mother's Day present.

Congratulations, Richard! We're very proud of you and we know you'll be very successful in this field...a nice combination of your high tech background and your new interest in teaching.

AeroInfo Systems - A Boeing Company

Jim's first week at VCC

Jim enjoyed his first week at Vancouver Community College...always fun to teach in a different place! On his first day Monday he experienced an excellent example of irony and since he was teaching a story with irony it worked out perfectly except it cost us 50 bucks!

When he parked in the morning he was concerned about being too close to a fire hydrant and even phoned city hall to get the exact distance. In retrospect he figures he was just fine but moved to another place where he didn't notice you couldn't park from 3-6pm. He had a meeting in the pm so had to stick around. He came back at 3:15 and had a ticket but luckily it hadn't been towed! So...a bit of luck. All part of adapting to the big city....

La Belle Province

As Pete McMartin said in the Sun today, "Quebec may not officially be a different country, but it is a different planet".

From his column today:

"My favourite story of this election comes out of the Quebec riding of Berthier-Maskinonge, where NDP candidate Ruth Ellen Brosseau chased a long-standing Bloc Quebecois incumbent out of office. Ms. Brosseau won with 40 per cent of the vote.

Ms. Brosseau -an assistant manager in a university pub whose chief political accomplishment, according to NDP literature, has been "finding homes for stray animals" -neither lives in the riding nor speaks French fluently, if at all. She could not confirm if she even visited it during the campaign, since she gave no interviews. She did, however, find time to vacation in Las Vegas."

I think there should be lots of amusing stories coming out of Quebec with all the rookie MP's.

La barbe....

La barbe...colloquial French for "boring"...

Listening to Jack Layton and it seems very appropriate given all the new Quebec MP's and his speech going on at the moment. Unbelievably boring...why does he think he needs to say the exact same thing in French and English since he knows it will be translated? I think those people who felt they'd like to have a beer with Layton may rethink that.

Not a great fan of Iggy but at least he gave a good speech and didn't insult everyone by repeating himself. Ah...Canadian politics...what a drag. Best thing is that the Bloc got obliterated...worth listening to all the palaver just to have that happen.

Can I actually stand to listen to Harper...well, in for a penny, in for a pound...

Update:



Well, at least he appeared "human" for once in his speech and we'll see if he does try to serve all Canadians. I did admire his calm during all the usual idiotic election nonsense. Thank goodness we'll be spared another election for four years...I think I could have accepted a majority of the Bloc just for that.

A Banner Day!

I just bought something on the Internet with Paypal and my bank account was charged less than the US amount...a first and hopefully not a last!