And Now Fog

And Now Fog, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

Bright blue skies one day, thick fog the next.

My New Car

Hummer_blog, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

Not.

Found this Hummer parked in the car park at Granville Island.

Speaking of Sunny Conditions...

Forecast_resize, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

...forecast for next week.

Vancouver is now on water restrictions due to the drought.

A Room With Two Views

Lounge_blog, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

I know I haven't really shown much of the apartment, and my first (and last) effort could at best be described as 'rubbish', so here's one I took today to take advantage of the sunny conditions. Used two external flashes- one on the couch to the left of picture and one behind the TV to light the room.

I'll try and get some more before I move on Thursday.

Porcelain Bus and Porcelain Shards

Tranquility, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

Well.....not a bad weekend just gone by. Friday night was a bit rowdier than I planned. Nick, Annette and I decided to head out for tea for a quick bite and a drink or two. As we were leaving, Jens Korte (MD of Heli-One Norway, and all-round nice-guy) asked if he could tag along. No problem we said.

After washing our dinner down with 3 or 4 pints of beer, we bode Jens farewell as he had a ski-trip planned for the weekend and headed off The Foggy Dew pub underneath Nick and Annette's hotel. The rest of the night comprised drinking round after round of Canadian Club and coke interspersed with B-52 shots. Needless to say the night ended in a blur and I spent the night on Nick and Annette's sofa (after getting crook in the dunny).

Saturday was pretty much a write off, but things picked up after sending Annette out on a Macca's run. Nothing cures a hangover like grease.

Annette and I left Nick to sleep it off and headed out to the Costco at Richmond to break in my new membership card. Costco is basically a huge discount store where everything is sold by the kilo or gallon. For example, you go to Costco if you want to buy a BUCKET of peanut butter. It's also CHEAP at Costco. I have my eye on a 37" LCD TV for my new place that they are selling for $999. It's a Viewsonic too; not some K-Mart rubbish (Centrex anyone?). Besides Richmond, there is also a Costco downtown and it's almost as huge as the Richmond one. To give you an idea of the size, just think of a Bunnings that sells food, electricals, medicine, toiletries, clothes etc etc. It even has its own meat, fruit & veg, and bakery sections (the baked goods are baked onsite). The only catch, is you need to be a member, not just to purchase, but to even set foot in the store. They actually shoooed me out of the Downtown store when I first went there without a membership. Basic membership costs $55 per year.

The weather on Sunday was great. The sky was a strange shade of grey (ie BLUE) and the rain was conspicous by its absence. Despite the clear skies and sun, it was still only -1C. This was the perfect opportunity to check out the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden in Chinatown as I'd heard it was one of the places you must see when in Vancouver. So I dragged Annette and Nick out to take a look. It is actually rather nice, and the snow and ice made for some picturesque scenes. The pools in the garden had actually frozen over and the ice must have been pretty thick as Nick's best efforts to stomp it with his foot (luckily) came to naught. Half of the garden is free to see, but you have to pay $8.75 to see the other part and there are regular tours with a guide. We paid up and joined a tour with a little old Chinese lady who looked and sounded like Yoda (apologies if you're reading this lady). She had some interesting things to say, but it was just too cold to stand around listening to her talk about where each individual pebble and porcelain shard in the courtyard floor came from (maybe I'll come back in summer for this) so we cut her loose and headed back into town for some food.

If you're in Vancouver, I'd say it's definitely worth visiting for the free section but $8.75 is a bit steep for the other part.

I did get some good photos though.

And frostbite.

BC Place Roof Collapses

Deflated, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

Got home from signing up for a new apartment (details to come) to be greeted by the sight of BC Place with its roof collapsed. Apparently, a tear developed in the fabric (it is an 'inflatable' roof) followed by a loud bang as it collapsed. BC Place officials claim this was intentional 'controlled deflation' after the initial tear was discovered.

For those interested, more info can be found on the CBC (Canada's equivalent of the ABC) website:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2007/01/05/bc-dome.html

Happy New Year

1 Jan 07 - 7pm -> Return DVD, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

Happy New Year everyone.

All the best for a safe and successful 2007.