Librarians' rule

You gotta love librarians!

Greg Girard photo exhibit

We went to see his photo exhibit today.  It's always a bit of an adventure actually finding this gallery but it's an interesting drive and we also saw the partially completed Emily Carr University.  We enjoyed the photos but it was a pretty small show.  After the interview I mentioned in my last post I was expecting more of the working waterfront.  Perhaps some have been sold and taken away?

This photo reminded me that it wasn't that long ago that there were "Men" and "Ladies and Escorts" entrances and sections in bars.  In my first teaching job in Victoria at Shoreline School,  the men were always trying to get one of us "ladies" to go with them to the Gorge Pub  so they could sit in the Ladies and Escorts section which was nicer.  We didn't have to stay but just had to get them in. There also wasn't any food allowed in pubs then other than picked eggs and potato chips and nuts.  A great thing about the Gorge Pub was there was a great fish and chip place across the street and they allowed  you to bring in the food.  Expo "86 brought all the new relaxed drinking laws as the argument was international tourists just wouldn't be able to understand or cope with the restrictions.  And...the world didn't fall apart so the new regulations stayed.

Some of Emily Carr University construction.

Times have changed

From John's blog:

Circa 1980 — This simple picture of seamen washing the hull of a freighter tied up at a Vancouver dock would be very hard to take now as the docks have been behind barbed wire and armed guards since 9/11. Before that it was easy for a photographer to drive onto the docks and look for pictures. I even remember wandering about the deck of a ship just because the gangplank was down and the crew was friendly.

One of our favourite restaurants,  The Cannery,  was victim of 9/11 too.  It was a great restaurant and had views from the dockyards which was unusual.  Susan and Chris,  I know you loved this place too!

I'm really interested in getting to Greg Girard's current photo exhibit, "Under Vancouver 1972-1982".   There seem to be a lot of photos of the "working waterfront".  He also laments this lack of access now and how things have changed.   John saw the exhibit and quite liked it....a darker Fred Herzog.  Interesting article and interview.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/greg-girard-vancouver-photographs-1.4114262

Richard comes bearing wonderful gifts....

Richard brought flowers and brunch over today from Reinhardt's....yum,  yum, yum...all sorts of goodies!   Afterwards I drove him over to Grace's mom's where Grace is making her traditional Mother's Day paella.  On the way (a bit of a detour) we decided to drop by Jim's family's old house (now a big new house which Jim and I had seen before) and my old family house which is still the same amazingly.  I hadn't  been past for a number of years.  I pointed out to him where the white picket fence was that I was paid $5 to paint and the hardtop and basketball hoop and where the vacant lot with the black water tower (painted black from silver in WW II apparently so bombers couldn't spot it) where we played scrub baseball every day after school....no more water tower,  no more vacant lot.

You are a wonderful son and we love you dearly.

Richard concocting a special strawberry ginger ale drink.

This is the new house that replaced Jim's family's old house.  The next photo is of one of the original houses on the street.   They all looked pretty much the same.

Our old family house.  It looks pretty much the same except there wasn't a fence in the front yard.  The laurel hedge seems to be no more.  Linda,  do you remember us making "cigarettes" out of the dried laurel leaves and rolled the "tobacco" in a green leaf?  Not very successful as a smoke.  Carol,  I think you were too sensible to join us in such pursuits :)

From The Good Life France (TGLF)

I was talking on the phone to my cousin, Bonnie, yesterday and also,  Maureen,  in The Sylvia,  yesterday.   Talk got on to the "good old days"  and the simpler life we all had growing up.  Maureen and I also talked about the dark side of those seemingly ideal times...racism,  sexism,  intolerance and lack of understanding of anyone who was different.

This morning greeted me with this from TGLF and it seemed very fitting.

The village of spies newsletter from France... I don't do politics here at TGLF – I reckon you all have to put up with enough already of others putting their opinions on Twitter and Facebook and anywhere else they can. So, I shan't say any more on this subject except that there is a new President of France and it is the subject of much debate in the cafés and bars of France including my own teeny tiny local bar. When Sarkozy was in, they talked about his style, his hauteur, his love of bling and his glamorous wife. If you had heard the chitchat, you would have been fairly certain that many from the village moonlighted as spies and may even have been part of Sarkozy's inner circle of advisers spending all week listening in on top secret conversations. When Hollande got in, or Monsieur Flanby as some prefer to call him - a nod to the blancmange dessert of that name that's sold in supermarkets here – the same thing. Everyone here seemed to know everything about his day, though debates were rather more tame. It remains to be seen how new President Macron does but it certainly bought everyone out for a get together and to give advice on what should and shouldn't be done. My local bar looks like someone's front room. There's a small gas fire set into a brown tiled fire place with a ‘50s vibe and the room is lit by a few lamps on shelves. A TV set on a stand high up on the wall plays constantly showing horse races or the lottery draw mostly. It's rather dark in there and the walls are a dull brown colour, the wooden tables and chairs have seen better days. Madame behind the bar is short with a blonde beehive hairdo, perhaps she has had it since she was young in the ‘60s. Her little white dog which is trapped behind a half door, yaps and tries to get out and lick customers and nibble their shoes. She does a brisk business when she's open, which seems to be when she feels like it and fairly random. Apart from being a bar it's also where you can buy lottery tickets, tobacco products, fishing tackle and various random objects. What makes it special is Madame and her husband and the locals, many of whom have been going here for years. When you walk in everyone says hello, many shake your hand and when you leave they say goodbye. It might not be that glamorous but it's cosy and makes you feel like you belong. It's also where you find out what's going on in the world – well at least according to some people! With best wishes, Bon Weekend and Bisous from France Janine Editor  ps I held a give away of my book “My Good Life in France” and the winner was Lesley Ring. You can get it from Amazon UK and book stores, plus Amazon everywhere else on Kindle until it comes out a bit later this year. ps from me:  I just ordered the Kindle edition for $9.95 CDN.  I am interested to read it and it's nice to support  Janine Marsh.

Pride and Prejudice

I don't generally re-read novels but since I joined the Jane Austen Society I thought I would do some re-reading of Austen and Pride and Prejudice seemed a perfect place to begin.   I read this 50 years ago when I was in third year university and this is the edition I read.   I was never big on taking notes but the printed comments in ink are mine.   Jim's are in pencil and in written script.  

I have only just read 14 pages but I must say I am enjoying it immensely so far!  Maybe there is something to this re-reading....

My first SFU class yesterday

I really enjoyed my class yesterday.  I had heard a lot about Graham Forst as a teacher (his wife is Judith Forst,  opera singer) and he lives up to the billing.  I also was interested in the topic even though I've studied a lot of this stuff already,   the mix of word and music is great and it makes for a great review and pulling of things together.  

From Reason to Passion:  The Romantic Movement in Word and Music.

https://www.sfu.ca/continuing-studies/courses/plus/2017/05/168-from-reason-to-passion-the-romantic-movment.html

I went a few stops further than I should have on the bus.  The route has changed so that the bus goes down Pender instead of Hastings now.  I had given myself lots of time and it turned out to be a real bonus as I passed The Paper Hound bookshop.  I love this place!  

I always enjoy looking at the dollhouse...lots of rooms with lots of books.

On other visits I assumed this "Poetry is better than Cigarettes"  machine was a piece of memorabilia and didn't actually work but it does!  So,  I got a poem and also a won a free book of poetry....very cool!

A little paper box comes out sort of like a pack of cigarettes.

You open it up and there is a poem.

And then the red tag that said I won a free book of poetry.  I think everyone wins.  Some tourists saw me doing this and then did it themselves and won a book too.

"Transmitter and Receiver" by Raoul Fernandes.  The collection won a B.C. Book Prize and the poetry looks quite interesting.  It was published in 2015.

And of course I had to buy a book bag and it is already part of my collection.  I don't think they had them when I visited before.  It's great to see a bookstore making a go of it.

And then to top off a great day,  we went to see Reid Jamieson at The Sylvia.  We really enjoy him and I see he has a number of albums on Apple Music so some are in my library already.
And we ran into one of our beach friends too and had a nice chat.

http://www.reidjamieson.com

Itty Bitty Book Review: "Birds, Art Life"

 "Birds, Art Life" by Kyo Maclear

Carol mentioned this book on her blog and I happened to be passing Book Warehouse that day so decided to pick it up.  It's kind of a funny quirky little book but I really enjoyed it and feel like Barbara Gowdy who reviewed it:

"Every now and then you read a book that changes the way you see the world.  The writing is marvelously pure and honest and light.  At the same time, magically, it is erudite, generous and brimming with meaning and event.  It is a book I will return to again and again for inspiration and solace."

Newspapers and marathons and news....

We didn't get our newspaper yesterday but wasn't surprising since pretty much the whole city is shut down by the BMO Marathon.   On the positive side,  we heard nothing...no cow bells,  brass bands,  fog horns, whoo hoo.  Now,  I say "whoo hoo" to that!

Jim went to his lawn bowling clinic yesterday morning and really enjoyed it and met some neat people.  One person has a place in Sunrise Villas in Palm Springs.  This is quite a coincidence since it's very close to us and that's where Nicki and Stan stayed this year and have booked for next year.  I'm joining as a social member and look forward to the Friday night bar-b-q's.  Maureen has joined as well.  I find the actual lawn bowling gets my sciatica going so will just be an observer.

Good news about the French election....the world hasn't gone completely crazy after all!

And it was a nice morning surprise to read a story about Richard's new workplace...Mobify.  The story appeared in The Sun today but appeared about a week ago in the Financial Post so that is where the link is from.

Peter McLachlan, chief product officer at Mobify, in their offices in Vancouver.

http://business.financialpost.com/entrepreneur/0501-biz-dd-vancouver

Dick and Susan come for lunch...

...and I made chilli and Red Lobster Cheddar biscuits....yummy!  I'm so glad I rediscovered making chilli thanks to Carol and also Linda,  who brought these great biscuits and then also brought me a big package of mixes from Costco.  It makes for a really easy and fun lunch.

Great afternoon,  guys!

This is all that was left of the chilli so safe to say we all enjoyed it.

yum,  yum,  yum  and so easy!

Facebook memories....you got to love them...

...especially when I was reminded that this time last year Carol started her blog!

Congratulations,  Carol,  on a year of wonderful blogging that your readers love.  Interesting that your blog post today was of a wonderful garden too.

http://mountdunbar.blogspot.ca/2016/05/laburnum.html

Seeing another movie in a movie theatre...

Perhaps La La Land got us going to movie theatres again and also I really wanted to see Maudie on the big screen.   It was playing at International Villages so perfect...great to get free parking downtown.  We really enjoyed it.  A rather amazing film given it's really just rather simple dialogue but it really worked for us somehow.

I thought I had a book on Maud Lewis but I couldn't find it.  Perhaps it was a calendar.  What I do have is this wonderful candle from Mary which always has a treasured place in any home we have.  Mary bought an original Maud Lewis quite a few years ago.  She has quite an eye for naive art.  Mary,  you know if you hadn't encouraged me so much when I first started painting I wouldn't have continued and had all that pleasure.  Thank you again,  dear friend!

The candle is an open square and takes a tea light...looks wonderful at night and lasts forever of course.

On the back of the candle.

Since I was taking these photos outside for the light,  it seemed appropriate to take one of my little cactus bowl that suffered months of neglect,  snow,  and everything else Vancouver had to offer this winter.   The resilience of cacti seemed appropriate with a post on Maud Lewis.

It looks like we'll be seeing a few more movies since there are three (or coming soon)  at International Villages that we are interested in.  One is "A Quiet Passion" which is about Emily Dickinson and another is a Ken Loach film called "I Daniel Blake".   We loved Loach's "Kes" and this one looks equally good.   Today,  there was a preview of "Paris Can Wait".   How could we resist all that scenery and food of France...a must see for us!