Okay, so I know that, one, I haven't written a post since November, and, two, that Christmas was a month ago. I'm sorry! I just simply haven't done anything - at all - so I couldn't write about anything. I have no excuse for a month's delay, however. Anyway, it's here now, so read on!
My first Christmas away from home and my family naturally felt quite strange, and because the twenty-fifth itself was quiet with few people around, I got a little homesick. On the twenty-fourth, though, we had a big potluck in the evening, so Christmas Eve felt much more festive than Christmas Day itself.
The house was very quiet for most of December, from around the 12th until after New Year. Mark went to South America with his brother, Jamie finished her degree so moved out the week before Christmas, and George and Ian both went home to spend the holidays with their families. So the entire middle floor was completely empty for a while. Nico from downstairs, too, has spent nearly the last month and a half in France - I think he'll be back in about a week. Anais, Jocelyn, Adam, Claude, Audrey and I spent a couple of evenings watching films, which was really nice.
In France and other French-speaking places, the main celebratory meal, réveillon, is held on Christmas Eve, which is why we had the potluck then. The turkey roasting all day definitely made the house smell like Christmas! Anais invited some of her friends (Aram, former Zenhousemate Justine, Aline, and Matt), to join us, so twelve people were there over the course of the evening. Jocelyn and Adam had prior plans so didn't come, but Naomi was here early on, along with her friend Fernie, and Peyton - whom, despite his living downstairs for as long as I've been here, I had never even heard of, let alone set eyes upon, before being unlucky enough to pull his name from the Secret Santa hat a month before! They three left after a while, in order to spend time with other friends and family, and Matt went out later to pick up his friend Eric.
We'd been snacking on vegetable sticks with Claude's guacamole, and had foie gras (duck or goose liver, similar to pâté) as a starter, but I think it was about 10pm by the time we ate the actual meal. Turkey, roasted potatoes, carrots and parsnips, a Minnesotan dish of rice and vegetables, apple and chestnut stuffing, cranberry sauce, and gravy. Of course, everything was amazing (except sadly the rice wasn't cooked) and everyone had a good time. Before having Audrey's chocolate Yule log for dessert, we played "Who Am I" for a while, which was fun. I was a bit nervous about the fact that there were going to be people I didn't know, but Aline, Matt and Eric were much easier to feel comfortable around than Jamie's half-drunk friends at the previous potluck in October - so it was fine. I actually really enjoyed it, it was a very pleasant evening, which came to a close around 1am.
Christmas Day wouldn't be right, for me, without grapefruit for breakfast. I don't know why or when it started, but for years it's been a tradition in my family. So of course I'd bought one. But just having half a grapefruit for breakfast would be silly - so I had my usual milky porridge as well, making it much nicer by adding a couple of spoonfuls of my cranberry sauce. Yum :)
Like I said, the twenty-fifth was strange. With the late night and absence of an early morning barge-in-the-bedroom-door-and-switch-the-bright-light-on-with-a-"Get up! It's Christmas!" wake up call (hahaha), I slept 'til about mid-morning. I'd been sent a couple of presents so opened those before breakfast, listened to some Christmas music and went on Skype in the early afternoon, but apart from those things it was a very quiet, not-very-festive day. Claude went out early to spend the day with his sister, and Jocelyn and Adam were with friends, but Justine came over before lunch to help Anais, Audrey and I with all the leftovers :)
Boxing Day was much less quiet, as several of Jocelyn's friends came over for an all-day movie marathon. I didn't join them, too many unknown people and too little space. Anais left for San Francisco a day or two after that, I left on the 30th for a couple of weeks at home, Claude left for New Zealand, Audrey prepared to go to San Francisco, and poor excited Mark returned from South America to an empty house. He only had to wait a few days for people to start coming back, though. When I arrived back from England on the 12th, everyone but George and Claude were back and new housemate Marisa had moved in. Back to normal, now, though!
Saturday, 25 January 2014
Wednesday, 20 November 2013
Tuesday 19th November 2013, day 132 - Wonderful Autumnal Weather
"Come, faeries, take me out of this dull world,
For I would ride with you upon the wind,
Run on the top of the dishevelled tide,
And dance upon the mountains like a flame!"
- William Butler Yeats, 'The Land of Heart's Desire'
While this world isn't dull, I do like faeries, and the wind, sea and mountain references are very appropriate. I'm a girl of simple pleasures, and have been filled with childlike glee all day simply because of the weather. It's been one of those glorious late-autumn days where the sky is a cloudless azure, the air is cold and the wind is strong.
Clouds have obscured the mountaintops for the past couple of days and there's a bit more snow on them now, both the rocky ridges of Grouse Mountain and the softer tree-covered summit of Cypress Mountain. As I'm writing this, I've been watching through my window the gradual shift in colours as the sun has set, and can't decide which effect was more beautiful. At first, both the dark green trees and the white snow were a lovely shade of pink. Then, a while later, the sky instead was pink, but a softer shade, and the snow back to a cool bluey-white. Now the snow is sort of pearly against an indigo sky.
Putting on my thermal leggings, an extra pair of socks, and the thermal hat I had bought in Tofino (not to mention gloves, scarf and windproof coat with attached fleece) I took myself and my camera down to the beach I found a couple of weeks ago. I started grinning as soon as I entered the park. White horses played all over the Burrard Inlet and English Bay, and were even visible far out past Lighthouse Point. The waves curled in with regularity and under the constant roar of the windswept water I heard the soft lapping of each individual breaker as it washed up over the sand. Zephyrus sent the crows and gulls soaring with no effort on their part. I took a few photographs, but then just sat and watched and listened.
After forty-five minutes sat on a rock by the sea in a wind that makes the air temperature feel like three degrees Celcius, I decided to get up and move. The weak warmth of the early afternoon sun on my face was welcome as I made my way back to the house. Once more indoors, I switched on the little heater in my room for a few minutes before going down to the kitchen for peppermint tea and a warm lunch.
For I would ride with you upon the wind,
Run on the top of the dishevelled tide,
And dance upon the mountains like a flame!"
- William Butler Yeats, 'The Land of Heart's Desire'
While this world isn't dull, I do like faeries, and the wind, sea and mountain references are very appropriate. I'm a girl of simple pleasures, and have been filled with childlike glee all day simply because of the weather. It's been one of those glorious late-autumn days where the sky is a cloudless azure, the air is cold and the wind is strong.
Clouds have obscured the mountaintops for the past couple of days and there's a bit more snow on them now, both the rocky ridges of Grouse Mountain and the softer tree-covered summit of Cypress Mountain. As I'm writing this, I've been watching through my window the gradual shift in colours as the sun has set, and can't decide which effect was more beautiful. At first, both the dark green trees and the white snow were a lovely shade of pink. Then, a while later, the sky instead was pink, but a softer shade, and the snow back to a cool bluey-white. Now the snow is sort of pearly against an indigo sky.
Putting on my thermal leggings, an extra pair of socks, and the thermal hat I had bought in Tofino (not to mention gloves, scarf and windproof coat with attached fleece) I took myself and my camera down to the beach I found a couple of weeks ago. I started grinning as soon as I entered the park. White horses played all over the Burrard Inlet and English Bay, and were even visible far out past Lighthouse Point. The waves curled in with regularity and under the constant roar of the windswept water I heard the soft lapping of each individual breaker as it washed up over the sand. Zephyrus sent the crows and gulls soaring with no effort on their part. I took a few photographs, but then just sat and watched and listened.
After forty-five minutes sat on a rock by the sea in a wind that makes the air temperature feel like three degrees Celcius, I decided to get up and move. The weak warmth of the early afternoon sun on my face was welcome as I made my way back to the house. Once more indoors, I switched on the little heater in my room for a few minutes before going down to the kitchen for peppermint tea and a warm lunch.
Thurs 14th/Fri 15th November 2013, days 127/128 - Zenhouse Nights Out
Around the corner, less than a minute's walk from the house, is a twenty-four hour vegetarian restaurant called The Naam. I knew of it before I left England and have wanted to go in there but not by myself. Well I've been in there two nights in a row, now! Haha.
Thursday 14th, day 127
On Thursday, Anais, Jamie, Audrey and I went there for a meal. A girls' night, if you will. Jamie had suggested it last week, while I was making a korma for dinner. (I was ever so happy to have found some Sharwood's curry powder in Whole Foods a month or so ago. The Safeway stuff tastes nothing like what I'm used to so I don't like it.) By the time everyone got back from work or uni, it was a bit late to get the bus across town to the Indian restaurant Jamie had in mind, so we walked round the corner to The Naam. (Turns out, as Ian informed us yesterday, there's an good Indian restaurant just one block further west.)
It's a cool little place with wooden tables, a wooden floor and casual decor. There were no available tables in the main inside area, so we were seated out the back, which during the summer would be outside. Thankfully there were plastic wall things up, which didn't have gaps in, and decent heaters so it was warm. A lot on the menu sounded good, but I went for a Thai curry "dragon bowl": rice, broccoli, cauliflower, and fried tofu with a coconut curry sauce topped with bean sprouts and grated beetroots and carrots. It was nice, not amazing but good. To the surprise of the others I consumed the whole huge bowlful, while they each only managed about half of their chosen dish and took the rest home. To my surprise, I ate it all with chopsticks.
So that was an enjoyable couple of hours, and we might go out more often, either for meals or maybe even a yoga class or something of that ilk now and again.
Friday 15th, day 128
In 1867, the Hastings Mill sawmill was established on the southern shore of the Burrard Inlet. Later the same year, "Gassy" Jack Deighton built a pub on the edge of the mill property, in what was then just a clearing in the forest, to serve the loggers and workers. "Gassy's Town" quickly built up around it and two years later was renamed Granville, after the British Secretary of State for the Colonies, when the colonial government surveyed the settlement and laid out plans for a township. In 1886 the Canadian Pacific Railway chose the town as the terminus for the transcontinental railway and it was renamed again, this time as the city of Vancouver.
Gastown is now a National Historic Site of Canada, with cobbled streets and late-Victorian buildings. After the Great Depression in the 1930s it became a largely forgotten neighbourhood of the larger city and fell into decline until the 1960s. Since then a lot of the area has been renovated, and there are now fashion boutiques, art galleries, music studios, restaurants, bars and nightclubs, offices of lawyers and architects, etc...
On Friday evening, Mark and Claude were planning to go out in Gastown and invited every Zenhousemate they saw - which, seeing as it was dinner-time, was almost everyone. Of course at first I was hesitant, but when they made it clear they weren't going to a club and Jamie said she wasn't going to stay out too late, I agreed to go. So an hour later Audrey, Ian, Mark, Claude and I squeezed into the passenger seats of Jamie's car, and Mark put an AC/DC song on for me because it was my "Zenhouse debut".
The pub we went to is in Maple Tree Square, which looked really pretty with the trees covered in little white lights. It was still relatively early, about nine-thirty, so there wasn't a queue outside, but the split-level maritime-themed inside was busy and we were lucky to find a table to fit all six of us. Being "so English", I bought a cider, and we sat talking around the table for a couple of hours, barely able to hear each other over the music (which wasn't bad, I neither disliked nor liked it). Of course, it was a social situation in a busy place so I wasn't entirely at ease, and looked down at the table and up at the ceiling and opposite wall while trying to think of conversation topics... anywhere but at people. We moved to the upper level, the dance floor, for a while, but stayed to the side where I could lean against a table and didn't have to dance, haha. Moving to music I don't enjoy is not a natural thing for me. Is it for anyone?
Jamie, Audrey, Ian and I left around midnight, leaving Mark and Claude to their dancing. Audrey went inside when we got back to the house but the rest of us were hungry, so we walked around the corner to The Naam. Even at that time of night it was busy, surprisingly with a few families with children. Jamie had a slice of rich chocolate fudge cake, I had a slice of Dutch apple-and-cranberry pie, and Ian hadn't eaten since breakfast so he had a bowl of noodles. We spent maybe forty-five minutes there, and Mark and Claude were already back at the house when we returned.
Thursday 14th, day 127
On Thursday, Anais, Jamie, Audrey and I went there for a meal. A girls' night, if you will. Jamie had suggested it last week, while I was making a korma for dinner. (I was ever so happy to have found some Sharwood's curry powder in Whole Foods a month or so ago. The Safeway stuff tastes nothing like what I'm used to so I don't like it.) By the time everyone got back from work or uni, it was a bit late to get the bus across town to the Indian restaurant Jamie had in mind, so we walked round the corner to The Naam. (Turns out, as Ian informed us yesterday, there's an good Indian restaurant just one block further west.)
It's a cool little place with wooden tables, a wooden floor and casual decor. There were no available tables in the main inside area, so we were seated out the back, which during the summer would be outside. Thankfully there were plastic wall things up, which didn't have gaps in, and decent heaters so it was warm. A lot on the menu sounded good, but I went for a Thai curry "dragon bowl": rice, broccoli, cauliflower, and fried tofu with a coconut curry sauce topped with bean sprouts and grated beetroots and carrots. It was nice, not amazing but good. To the surprise of the others I consumed the whole huge bowlful, while they each only managed about half of their chosen dish and took the rest home. To my surprise, I ate it all with chopsticks.
So that was an enjoyable couple of hours, and we might go out more often, either for meals or maybe even a yoga class or something of that ilk now and again.
Friday 15th, day 128
In 1867, the Hastings Mill sawmill was established on the southern shore of the Burrard Inlet. Later the same year, "Gassy" Jack Deighton built a pub on the edge of the mill property, in what was then just a clearing in the forest, to serve the loggers and workers. "Gassy's Town" quickly built up around it and two years later was renamed Granville, after the British Secretary of State for the Colonies, when the colonial government surveyed the settlement and laid out plans for a township. In 1886 the Canadian Pacific Railway chose the town as the terminus for the transcontinental railway and it was renamed again, this time as the city of Vancouver.
Gastown is now a National Historic Site of Canada, with cobbled streets and late-Victorian buildings. After the Great Depression in the 1930s it became a largely forgotten neighbourhood of the larger city and fell into decline until the 1960s. Since then a lot of the area has been renovated, and there are now fashion boutiques, art galleries, music studios, restaurants, bars and nightclubs, offices of lawyers and architects, etc...
On Friday evening, Mark and Claude were planning to go out in Gastown and invited every Zenhousemate they saw - which, seeing as it was dinner-time, was almost everyone. Of course at first I was hesitant, but when they made it clear they weren't going to a club and Jamie said she wasn't going to stay out too late, I agreed to go. So an hour later Audrey, Ian, Mark, Claude and I squeezed into the passenger seats of Jamie's car, and Mark put an AC/DC song on for me because it was my "Zenhouse debut".
The pub we went to is in Maple Tree Square, which looked really pretty with the trees covered in little white lights. It was still relatively early, about nine-thirty, so there wasn't a queue outside, but the split-level maritime-themed inside was busy and we were lucky to find a table to fit all six of us. Being "so English", I bought a cider, and we sat talking around the table for a couple of hours, barely able to hear each other over the music (which wasn't bad, I neither disliked nor liked it). Of course, it was a social situation in a busy place so I wasn't entirely at ease, and looked down at the table and up at the ceiling and opposite wall while trying to think of conversation topics... anywhere but at people. We moved to the upper level, the dance floor, for a while, but stayed to the side where I could lean against a table and didn't have to dance, haha. Moving to music I don't enjoy is not a natural thing for me. Is it for anyone?
Jamie, Audrey, Ian and I left around midnight, leaving Mark and Claude to their dancing. Audrey went inside when we got back to the house but the rest of us were hungry, so we walked around the corner to The Naam. Even at that time of night it was busy, surprisingly with a few families with children. Jamie had a slice of rich chocolate fudge cake, I had a slice of Dutch apple-and-cranberry pie, and Ian hadn't eaten since breakfast so he had a bowl of noodles. We spent maybe forty-five minutes there, and Mark and Claude were already back at the house when we returned.
Monday 11th November 2013, day 124 - Lighthouse Park
Today was a public holiday and the weather was dry, so Audrey, Nico, Anais and I caught two buses over to West Vancouver and spent the afternoon in Lighthouse Park. Located on a little peninsula with the Burrard Inlet to the east and the Strait of Georgia to the west, it was named for the Point Atkinson Lighthouse and covers nearly 190 acres, almost all of which is old-growth rainforest. Point Atkinson was first chartered and named by Captain George Vancouver in 1792, so is a National Historic Site, and because of the lighthouse, which needs a dark background, the trees in what is now the park have never been logged. Therefore the park contains some ancient Western hemlock and Western Redcedar, and the city's last remaining stand of first-growth Douglas fir.
We left the house around 1pm, and on the overcrowded bus journey I noticed that, while the particularly pretty ones I pass on the way to the supermarket are now bare, some trees of the same species in other areas of the city still have a lot of their leaves. So my eyes stayed happily fixed to any vivid splashes of coral-pink, apricot and dark raspberry we passed, for as long as possible - which was usually only a few seconds. Mount Baker was visible as we crossed the Lions Gate Bridge.
We spent a couple of hours roaming some of the trails, pausing at a few viewpoints for a while; we saw an eagle at the one by the lighthouse. None of us had been there before and didn't know what the trail conditions would be like so I'm glad I wore my hiking boots: it was damp and slippery in places, but thankfully not too wet or my socks would have gotten damp too. We reached the last viewpoint just after sunset, and sat on the vast, smooth granite boulders to watch the lights of Vancouver slowly blink on in the deepening twilight. Returning through the now-dark forest was interesting, and quite cool, but not difficult. We only had to wait a minute for the bus.
It was 6pm by the time the bus arrived back in Downtown. Nico and Anais went to meet some friends, so Audrey and I decided to find something to eat before going back to the house. Wanting something savoury, warm, quick and fairly cheap, we walked along Robson Street, the main shopping street which I've never been down before, for five minutes before coming across a diner-style burrito place. Perfect! I ordered a pulled pork traditional burrito (slightly spicy rice, beans, lettuce, salsa, in a tortilla), it was made fresh straight away and it was yummy, and filling :) Back at the house, the rest of the evening was quiet.
We left the house around 1pm, and on the overcrowded bus journey I noticed that, while the particularly pretty ones I pass on the way to the supermarket are now bare, some trees of the same species in other areas of the city still have a lot of their leaves. So my eyes stayed happily fixed to any vivid splashes of coral-pink, apricot and dark raspberry we passed, for as long as possible - which was usually only a few seconds. Mount Baker was visible as we crossed the Lions Gate Bridge.
We spent a couple of hours roaming some of the trails, pausing at a few viewpoints for a while; we saw an eagle at the one by the lighthouse. None of us had been there before and didn't know what the trail conditions would be like so I'm glad I wore my hiking boots: it was damp and slippery in places, but thankfully not too wet or my socks would have gotten damp too. We reached the last viewpoint just after sunset, and sat on the vast, smooth granite boulders to watch the lights of Vancouver slowly blink on in the deepening twilight. Returning through the now-dark forest was interesting, and quite cool, but not difficult. We only had to wait a minute for the bus.
It was 6pm by the time the bus arrived back in Downtown. Nico and Anais went to meet some friends, so Audrey and I decided to find something to eat before going back to the house. Wanting something savoury, warm, quick and fairly cheap, we walked along Robson Street, the main shopping street which I've never been down before, for five minutes before coming across a diner-style burrito place. Perfect! I ordered a pulled pork traditional burrito (slightly spicy rice, beans, lettuce, salsa, in a tortilla), it was made fresh straight away and it was yummy, and filling :) Back at the house, the rest of the evening was quiet.
Wednesday, 6 November 2013
Sunday 3rd November 2013, day 116 - Beach, Fawlty Towers and children's books
This isn't a particularly interesting post. I did nothing particularly interesting, but had quite a nice day so I'll write about it.
For breakfast I made pancakes. Not from scratch, although I need to try that one day. I have a packet-mix: just add water. I haven't made them in a couple of months - they always end up thick, heavy and burned, which will partly be because it's a wholemeal mix and partly because cooking American pancakes (aka Scotch pancakes or drop scones) is difficult.
I also read for a long while. The e-book I'm currently devouring on my Kindle is Anne of the Island, book three of the Green Gables series. Oh, I love them! I watched the late-80's miniseries last year and adored it, but I'd never read the books - so I'm doing that now. Anne of Green Gables is the fourth so-called children's book I've read in the last few years that I never did when I was actually a child. Upon reading it for the first time in early 2011, I wasn't particularly impressed with Alice in Wonderland, and didn't understand the hype, but perhaps a second perusal one day will change my mind. The Wind in the Willows, on the other hand, I absolutely loved. The Hobbit certainly has more of an air of a children's story than it's epic high fantasy sequel trilogy does, and I enjoyed it but not as much as the latter. There are several more so-called children's books on my extensive books-I-want-to-read list, but the idyllic, enchanting Avonlea has my attention for now :) If you've ever read it, and know me, I'm sure you won't have any difficulty understanding why I love Anne of Green Gables (and Wind in the Willows).
I have finally figured out how to change the settings so that iTunes will allow me to edit the song titles! so spent some of today doing that. I also thought about what I'd like to bake. I haven't baked in months and I need to. I even bought a cheap tiny plastic set of kitchen scales the other day because the majority of my recipes are measured by weight not volume, and there are no scales in this house.
I signed up for the Canadian version of Netflix a few days ago. I can't get the UK one here. Among the things I was very happy to find was Fawlty Towers :) Ian and I are getting through the episodes quite quickly - we watched three today, and there are only four left.
The most remarkable thing I did today was go to the beach. Not like one does in the summer, of course; it is November. I sat on a rock for half an hour. I'm only mentioning it and writing this post in the first place because, although it's only a five-minute walk away, it's the first time I've been there. It's small and quiet and, although not the prettiest beach, is a pleasant place to sit awhile looking out over English Bay.
To the left, about a kilometre west, is the marina of the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club at the near end of Jericho Beach. Slightly to the right as my eyes pan across, but further away and not actually part of English Bay, is Bowen Island, beyond which in the far distance are dark snow-topped mountains. Directly opposite, past the container ships and between Lighthouse Point and Grouse Mountain, is the North Shore and West Vancouver. Below said mountain, as I look at it, is Stanley Park, the maple trees on the western shore of which providing a faint splash of pretty colour in among the evergreen conifers. Finally, to the right and east, standing out against yet more shadowy, distant snow-dusted peaks, are the glassy skyscrapers of Downtown Vancouver, shining brightly in the low late-afternoon sun.
For breakfast I made pancakes. Not from scratch, although I need to try that one day. I have a packet-mix: just add water. I haven't made them in a couple of months - they always end up thick, heavy and burned, which will partly be because it's a wholemeal mix and partly because cooking American pancakes (aka Scotch pancakes or drop scones) is difficult.
I also read for a long while. The e-book I'm currently devouring on my Kindle is Anne of the Island, book three of the Green Gables series. Oh, I love them! I watched the late-80's miniseries last year and adored it, but I'd never read the books - so I'm doing that now. Anne of Green Gables is the fourth so-called children's book I've read in the last few years that I never did when I was actually a child. Upon reading it for the first time in early 2011, I wasn't particularly impressed with Alice in Wonderland, and didn't understand the hype, but perhaps a second perusal one day will change my mind. The Wind in the Willows, on the other hand, I absolutely loved. The Hobbit certainly has more of an air of a children's story than it's epic high fantasy sequel trilogy does, and I enjoyed it but not as much as the latter. There are several more so-called children's books on my extensive books-I-want-to-read list, but the idyllic, enchanting Avonlea has my attention for now :) If you've ever read it, and know me, I'm sure you won't have any difficulty understanding why I love Anne of Green Gables (and Wind in the Willows).
I have finally figured out how to change the settings so that iTunes will allow me to edit the song titles! so spent some of today doing that. I also thought about what I'd like to bake. I haven't baked in months and I need to. I even bought a cheap tiny plastic set of kitchen scales the other day because the majority of my recipes are measured by weight not volume, and there are no scales in this house.
I signed up for the Canadian version of Netflix a few days ago. I can't get the UK one here. Among the things I was very happy to find was Fawlty Towers :) Ian and I are getting through the episodes quite quickly - we watched three today, and there are only four left.
The most remarkable thing I did today was go to the beach. Not like one does in the summer, of course; it is November. I sat on a rock for half an hour. I'm only mentioning it and writing this post in the first place because, although it's only a five-minute walk away, it's the first time I've been there. It's small and quiet and, although not the prettiest beach, is a pleasant place to sit awhile looking out over English Bay.
To the left, about a kilometre west, is the marina of the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club at the near end of Jericho Beach. Slightly to the right as my eyes pan across, but further away and not actually part of English Bay, is Bowen Island, beyond which in the far distance are dark snow-topped mountains. Directly opposite, past the container ships and between Lighthouse Point and Grouse Mountain, is the North Shore and West Vancouver. Below said mountain, as I look at it, is Stanley Park, the maple trees on the western shore of which providing a faint splash of pretty colour in among the evergreen conifers. Finally, to the right and east, standing out against yet more shadowy, distant snow-dusted peaks, are the glassy skyscrapers of Downtown Vancouver, shining brightly in the low late-afternoon sun.
I'm very lucky to be living here.
Monday, 4 November 2013
Wednesday 30th October 2013, day 112 - Anna's Farewell Potluck
Anna moved out on Friday (I'm writing this days afterward, as usual), so she wanted to have a potluck as a farewell party. A potluck is a meal where the attendees contribute a dish to share. It was fun :) The living room area of this "Zenhouse" was filled with fourteen people: nine Zenhousemates, plus two of the four who live in the separate ground-floor apartment, and three strangers, friends of Jamie (female) who didn't eat but were waiting to go out for the evening. There would have been a fifteenth if the owner hadn't been unwell.
Of the current ten housemates, only three were here when I arrived nearly four months ago: Mark, from Scotland, Anais, from France, and Claude, from Mauritius. All the others who have since moved in - owner Jocelyn, her boyfriend Adam, Ian, George and Jamie - are Canadian. On Friday evening French girl Audrey moved into what was Anna's room. Of the four who live downstairs on the ground floor, there are two who I've seen perhaps only once and whose names I don't know. Naomi, who when I arrived had the room next to mine, and Anais' French colleague Nico, we see fairly frequently.
Naomi had topped a focaccia loaf with tomato paste and cheese to make pizza; Adam bought some vegetable sticks and dip; Claude made a salad and guacamole; Nico made a tasty butternut squash soup, and Anna topped slices of persimmons and tomatoes with cheese and walnut halves. I made a Moroccan chicken stew and, although the dried cherries I'd bought turned out to still have the stones in, everyone said they loved it, which I was really happy about. For dessert Anais made a lovely choc-chip pumpkin loaf cake, and Jamie made what was supposed to be a sort of chocolate-biscuit-coconut granola bar but ended up as a rich gooey yummy mess that could only be removed from the baking tray by being scraped out with spoons. Nico brought up some grapes, too - really nice purple ones that actually tasted like grape-scented or -flavoured things (like shampoo or soda) smell and taste like. I think all that was leftover were a few tomato slices and a bit of the chocolate thing.
While the presence of Jamie's three talkative friends made me not quite as comfortable as I might have been in their absence, I enjoyed the evening and potlucks should definitely happen more often. When everyone dispersed around 10pm, Anna, Anais and I washed everything up (as you might imagine, there was a lot) and returned the kitchen and living room to a clean and tidy state.
Of the current ten housemates, only three were here when I arrived nearly four months ago: Mark, from Scotland, Anais, from France, and Claude, from Mauritius. All the others who have since moved in - owner Jocelyn, her boyfriend Adam, Ian, George and Jamie - are Canadian. On Friday evening French girl Audrey moved into what was Anna's room. Of the four who live downstairs on the ground floor, there are two who I've seen perhaps only once and whose names I don't know. Naomi, who when I arrived had the room next to mine, and Anais' French colleague Nico, we see fairly frequently.
Naomi had topped a focaccia loaf with tomato paste and cheese to make pizza; Adam bought some vegetable sticks and dip; Claude made a salad and guacamole; Nico made a tasty butternut squash soup, and Anna topped slices of persimmons and tomatoes with cheese and walnut halves. I made a Moroccan chicken stew and, although the dried cherries I'd bought turned out to still have the stones in, everyone said they loved it, which I was really happy about. For dessert Anais made a lovely choc-chip pumpkin loaf cake, and Jamie made what was supposed to be a sort of chocolate-biscuit-coconut granola bar but ended up as a rich gooey yummy mess that could only be removed from the baking tray by being scraped out with spoons. Nico brought up some grapes, too - really nice purple ones that actually tasted like grape-scented or -flavoured things (like shampoo or soda) smell and taste like. I think all that was leftover were a few tomato slices and a bit of the chocolate thing.
While the presence of Jamie's three talkative friends made me not quite as comfortable as I might have been in their absence, I enjoyed the evening and potlucks should definitely happen more often. When everyone dispersed around 10pm, Anna, Anais and I washed everything up (as you might imagine, there was a lot) and returned the kitchen and living room to a clean and tidy state.
Monday, 28 October 2013
Saturday 19th October 2013, day 101 - Macbeth, and a nice stroll around Downtown... not
For the first time since I've been here, I went to the cinema. Not to see a conventional film, but rather a screening of National Theatre Live: Macbeth. Until last year I had no idea that such things happened, that plays, ballets, operas and museum exhibitions were filmed and broadcast live in cinemas. I would have started going to see them years ago if I'd known. Anyway, unlike Much Ado About Nothing, Romeo and Juliet, and A Midsummer Night's Dream, I didn't know Macbeth at all, not even the basic plot, and so wouldn't be able to understand of what was going on and being said, at least not in detail. However, this performance starred the fantastic Kenneth Branagh as the title character and Alex Kingston as his Lady wife - so I had to see it.
The performance - held in a deconsecrated church in Manchester - actually took place back in July, not long after I left for Canada. I was disappointed about missing it until I found a cinema here that would be screening it. It was broadcast live to UK cinemas, but that live performance was recorded and sent around the world for international audiences to see at a later date. It was really good, I enjoyed it, and while obviously I'm not an expert in Early Modern English and all of Shakespeare's nuances, I understood what was going on in general. Kenneth Branagh was of course brilliant, as was Alex Kingston (who I've only ever watched as River Song in Doctor Who, so it was great to see her in something else, in a completely different role). The cast included a few other faces I'd seen before: John Shrapnel, Jimmy Yuill... the young man playing Prince Malcolm looked familiar and I later found out it was Alexander Vlahos, aka Mordred in the last series of Merlin. Ray Fearon's performance as Macduff was particularly impressive; his voice was just so powerful.
So yeah, that was good! I'll be going to more of those events. NT Live: Corialanus is coming soon. It's starring Tom Hiddleston :) so I might go. My debit card allows me to earn points, and a certain number of points means a free cinema ticket!
The annoying thing about my Canadian debit card, though, is that it's a bank debit card, not a Visa or MasterCard, so not everywhere accepts it. I haven't been able to use it for the few things I've tried to pay for online, including my phone bill - so I decided to go to the phone shop to do so after the cinema. (That bill is more than annoying too: I never send a text or make a call so thirty dollars every month is currently a completely unnecessary expense. It's kind of essential for job-hunting, though, and hopefully I'll use it more when I make friends, but I do wish they had pay-as-you-go here.)
I thought the phone shop was on an intersection on Granville Street. I didn't know which exact intersection, but Granville was only a few blocks away from the cinema so I thought I'd easily be able to find it. It wouldn't take long and I could go back to the house and have lunch.
Nope.
The red line on the map below is my accidental, hour-long route from the cinema to the phone shop.
The blue line is the route I should have taken, a journey of ten minutes.
Hahaha!
I laugh about it now, but it was frustrating at the time. I didn't want to hang around Downtown. I made it there eventually, though. I don't imagine I'll be forgetting that intersection again.
The performance - held in a deconsecrated church in Manchester - actually took place back in July, not long after I left for Canada. I was disappointed about missing it until I found a cinema here that would be screening it. It was broadcast live to UK cinemas, but that live performance was recorded and sent around the world for international audiences to see at a later date. It was really good, I enjoyed it, and while obviously I'm not an expert in Early Modern English and all of Shakespeare's nuances, I understood what was going on in general. Kenneth Branagh was of course brilliant, as was Alex Kingston (who I've only ever watched as River Song in Doctor Who, so it was great to see her in something else, in a completely different role). The cast included a few other faces I'd seen before: John Shrapnel, Jimmy Yuill... the young man playing Prince Malcolm looked familiar and I later found out it was Alexander Vlahos, aka Mordred in the last series of Merlin. Ray Fearon's performance as Macduff was particularly impressive; his voice was just so powerful.
So yeah, that was good! I'll be going to more of those events. NT Live: Corialanus is coming soon. It's starring Tom Hiddleston :) so I might go. My debit card allows me to earn points, and a certain number of points means a free cinema ticket!
The annoying thing about my Canadian debit card, though, is that it's a bank debit card, not a Visa or MasterCard, so not everywhere accepts it. I haven't been able to use it for the few things I've tried to pay for online, including my phone bill - so I decided to go to the phone shop to do so after the cinema. (That bill is more than annoying too: I never send a text or make a call so thirty dollars every month is currently a completely unnecessary expense. It's kind of essential for job-hunting, though, and hopefully I'll use it more when I make friends, but I do wish they had pay-as-you-go here.)
I thought the phone shop was on an intersection on Granville Street. I didn't know which exact intersection, but Granville was only a few blocks away from the cinema so I thought I'd easily be able to find it. It wouldn't take long and I could go back to the house and have lunch.
Nope.
The red line on the map below is my accidental, hour-long route from the cinema to the phone shop.
The blue line is the route I should have taken, a journey of ten minutes.
Hahaha!
I laugh about it now, but it was frustrating at the time. I didn't want to hang around Downtown. I made it there eventually, though. I don't imagine I'll be forgetting that intersection again.
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