>> KORMACURRY BLOG >>: January 2006

Year Of The Dog - 2006

Today me M, and our North Shore Mountain friends W. & M. headed down to Chinatown for the Chinese New Years celebrations. We really enjoyed the spectacular parade whilst munching on some Veggie HumBows & Red Bean Buns .. yum, yum, yum.

Saturday Evening PowderHoundAge

Friday Eve/Saturday Morn 14 inches of fresh snow fell @ Cypress. Saturday afternoon the storm had cleared, and the sun shined hard. "Perfect evening conditions" I thought to myself. GrooveMaster D (my neighbour) called and we quickly made plans to head upto the slopes. After 30 mins of leaving the East Side HQ, we headed up for a fine evening of powder action. Once again hardly anyone was there! We had the runs to ourselves, so we twisted the throttle and sped down the slopes without having to stop. Evening is fast becoming my favourite time to board.. it's peaceful, empty and $cheap$. We came back tired and happy.

Can I Have One For Xmas?

[Click Me] to read the article on robots that pour chilled beers for thirsty humans. LOL!

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

Someone stole my wallet last night, likely pick-pocketed down at Havana on Commercial drive. We were sat outside the restaurant enjoying some tasty Cuban food. My jacket was over the back of my chair. The bill came, I went to pay - "Awwww Bugggger!", no bloody wallet . Same thing had happened to these girls next to us some months back. Anyways, we came back, phoned the banks etc.. the thiefs had charged a meal at a restaurant (name currently unknown) and filled up there car with gas/petrol.

"The Busiest Rhymes Ever Made By Man.."

The legendary old school rapper Young MC played Vancouver last night. Me and my mate C. went down to watch the dude rhyme. We was in the mood for some real back-in-the-day action. But .... to be honest it was a little, erm, rubbish. He was alright ... the backing music track sucked (super on-the-cheap music), he didn't play the all-time-high Hacienda dance floor track - "Know How", and he only played for 20 minutes!!! I kid you not - 20 minutes! He came on, told us "how he loved Vancouver", how he was going to be perform his "new tracks", then some "old shit". Alright! I'm excited ... then before you know it "Goodnight Vancouver" WHAT??

Anyways all was not lost, me and C. had a good night out, came up with some good ideas, debated the Canadian Election and decided we want to put a DJ set on... C. came up with some good names... LOL

Massif In Manchester
Staines Massive

And a great indy band name, well we thought so.. "Blog Stories" or 'Stories for My Blog" LOL!

Afrikaa Bambaata next! YES! Hopefully he's better.

Bhangra In The Area

The South Eastern Indian Community of Vancouver are holding the International Bhangra Festival. We headed down for a show outside the art gallery last night. Lots of people braved the cold to watch the spectacular dancers.

First up was the South Surrrey Dance Group, and the dudes opened up with their dance. Dressed in colourful flowing outfits, ornate turbans they danced away to fantastic tunes. Next up was the girls dressed in super beautiful saris, and again danced away. Each dance lasted around 20 minds - just fantastic!, really something to watch.

In between dance groups they had mini-competitions for the young kids. Duo's came up and sparred against other duo's. Using the tried and tested Opportunity Knocks method of finding a winner - the host used the clap-o-meter. Who got the loudest response won. All the kids danced great and brought a smile to everyones face.

Serious Powder

Everyday there's been a super dumping of snow on the local mountains. Me & My PowderHound neighbour B. decided it was time to head up the mountains and sample the snowy joys.

Once again the visibilty was baaaaaad. Heading through the clouds up the mountain - 4 feet visibility .. clouded by fog and snow. Breaking through the cloud we arrived at the ski-resort to a semi-blizzard. Snow and wind pelting us. Like true PowderHounds we headed off to the lifts and braved the high winds and snow in the chairlift.

The 1st run down the mountain proved it was all worth it. Fantastic ... buttery, deep, plush - 'kill-pow snow' (As my good friend Dan from the desert calls good boarding snow). We had great runs all evening, picking up lots of speed in the smooooth snow. As the evening rolled on, the snow intensified and drifts began to form and the powder just got better! It's great boarding in the evening, not just for the visuals... everyone is stays home for some reason, so there's lots of room to play.

Brilliant!

"Everything I Do.. I Do It For You..."

Our neighbour Oz has been producing the tour of the Canadian superstar .. Bryan Adams. You know - he of 16 weeks @ No#1 with "Everything I do, I do it for you".

We started the evening with delicious food M. had made, then I, M & B (Kathmandu's Mum) headed downtown for the show. We arrived to watch people sat in PT Cruiser singing Bryan Adams karaoke hoping to wind a CD! This one dude was super serious, the next girl singer was beyond bizzarre. She was singing "Please Forgive Me" to her boyfriend after pronouncing to the world what he meant to her. She was sooooo nervous, so out of tune, sooo bizarre - I think she'd been naughty.

Prior to the show B. went backstage to meet Bryan. Being a cheeky monkey , he slapped her pass onto her chest and signed it. "Oi Bryan, No!!!" said Kathmandu.

The show started and he belted out the hits. I have to say I'm not a massive fan, but I really enjoyed the show. The songs I did know of his were flawlessy reproduced and very impressive. He and his band put on a great show for the crowd. Keith Scott the guitarist is fan-tab-ulous - he had his strat wailing throughout the show...

The crowd loved his homecoming show, and you know - so did we. Thanks a lot Oz.

Holiday Pictures - Part 4

Here's a few more from our trip to England & Spain. Enjoy.

Me & My Mates, Manchester, England

Tatton Park, England

Indian Sweets, Rusholme, England

Cool Waiters. Guy On The Left Was In A Pakistani Soap Opera.

The Curry Mile, Rusholme, Manchester, England

Space Invader. These Are All Over The World - There's Some Photo Book Showing Them All!

The Shambles Pub, Manchester, England

Manchester Library, England

Duke Of Lancaster, Manchester, England

Lincoln Memorial, Manchester, England

The Lone BagPiper, Bury, England

Cobblestone Streets, Bury, England

The Golden Mile, Looking Rather Drab - Blackpool, England

Blackpool Tower, Through The Sun Roof!, England

Local Chinese Chip Shop (Mei Po) Menu, England

An Eco Aparment Block - Has Solar Panels & Wind Generator. Manchester, England

Continental Divide

Thought I'd post this picture I took last year whilst on a powder-hound trip to the Rockies with M. and Striker. The picture shows a marker on one of the peaks in the Canadian Rockies marking the continental divide of North America - the point at which all rivers to the East flow to the Atlantic Ocean, and rivers to the West flow to the mighty Pacific Ocean. It also marks the boundry between the Canadian Provinces - British Columbia & Alberta.

Need for Speed: Most Wanted

No1 for 6 weeks in the UK charts. Brilliant! Click Me to read the article.

Nightime Boarding

A weather system has been dumping lots of snow on the local mountains - >40cm in the last 2 days! With the jetlag grinded away I decided it was time to head to the slopes. So, me and the neighbour B. headed into the mountains last night.

During the drive up we passed through a cloud. Things started to look extremely dodgy - only about 4 feet visibility. LOL! Then it started to snow, so it was time to put on the high beams and pretend we was in the Millenium Falcon making the jump to hyperspace ... "Punch it Chewie", "AarrrRRRgggghhh". LOL!

Thankfully we made it out of hyperspace and passed through the cloud to find the mountain kingdom a epic mix of open skies and solo clouds wandering through the valleys like lost sheep. NICE!

The snow was puuurrrfect, not to much fresh powder, not to much packed snow. The place was practically empty so we got get some speed up and slice some wide carvings in the snow. Ahh yes. The visuals were fantastic ... every shade of white covering the landscape, intense rays from the spotlights poking through the trees, an almost full moon, stars, Vancouver Island and the city lights far below.

Brilliant!

My First Pizza

Continuing cuisine lessons, M. taught me how to make a homemade pizza. We named it after our fave Italian town - Pizza Amalfi.

So what's on this thing? you might ask, well there's Pesto, Spinach,Olives, Capers, Peppers, Feta Cheese & Tomato seasoned with Oregano, Dill & Black Pepper

Ding-Dang-Doo it was delicious. If your a friend of mine, and you wanna come round and try some. Just invite yourself and I'll make it :) (note: I might say "bugger off!")

Elevation

We took our neighbours out for dinner last night as a big thank-you for taking care of our house whilst on vacation. After a delicious Cuban meal we headed downtown to catch the back-end of a U2 tribute band called Elevation. It's been some years since I've seen a 'official' tribute band, so I was curious of how good they'd be. I was totally impressed. They sounded amazing!. I'm serious, absolutely incrediable. "The Unforgettable Fire" was a thing of beauty, complete with synth strings "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" - amazing. "I Will Follow" - something else. "New Years Day" - fantastic!. The musicians are fantastic. Being into guitars I was notably impressed with how guitarist had the Edge's sound down perfectly.

You have to take it for what it is of course, and you can debate the merits of such a band - but there's no denying how amazing they sounded and how everyone was enjoying the show. A few beers, a top band and some of the best songs around - a good night.