Community Spirit

It's Community Clean Up Month here in Vancouver and our neighbour Ms Fiji was the local organiser and block captain rallying up the troops.

After last night's Arctic Monkeys show and 5 hours sleep I wasn't too happy to see the pouring rain outside. My civic duty got me dressed, out the door and drinking some wake-up coffee at Ms Fiji's. After a couple of espressos and a pastry smeared with Nutella (mmm) I was ready.

We met the garbage truck about 10 blocks away. Just 3 of us!!! The driver threw down some rubber gloves provided by the city and we headed down the back-streets grabbing all the trash (people had left there trash out in preperation). I have to say, this is where the fun started ... watching sofas crunch, TV's implode (boom!), cabinets smashing under the power of those trash compactors was, erm, awesome! LOL.

The cleanup passed through the hood and more neighbours came out and helped. The power trio grew into to a large posse. Everyone worked hard and cleaned up lot's of stuff, plus we all had a laugh. We met some nice folks we've never seen before.

The way KormaCurry see's it, if you want something you have to go and get it. We all want a good neighbourhood so that's why everyone was out today. Man, I love Vancouver.

Pictures coming as soon as I can disinfect my camera!

Arctic Monkeys


Oz invited us down to check the Arctic Monkeys show last night down at the Commodore (thanks Oz!). What a fab band indeed. The crowd was going mental, loving the show - dancing away. It's always electric when in indy-band gets the kids dancing.

They powered through their set with awesome rythmn. "I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor" sounded amazing. This band have a great sound, catchy songs, great precence and a good helping of that Northern Britain attitude that you can't buy in a bottle for $5.99. I congratulate them on engaging the audience and showing respect for people who showed up to check them out. A great night out.

Bassnectar

Friday was the Dubmaster C's birthday so we all head down to Richards On Richards to watch Bassnectar. What a fantastic show! Dubmaster wore a cheek->cheek grin all night! Lot's of body bounding bass, mental break-beats and full-on exciting compositions.

Bassnectar himself was a cool dude, engaging the audience (glad to see the stoic respect-the-dj demenour has gone) he really revved up the crowd of ravers, freaky dancers and hippie chics with hula's and spinning crystal balls. LOL! Good times indeed. Great to see the genre is still having good times, and the original spirt was living large that night (which is long gone in Manchester).

Golden Ears Provincial Park

Yesterday we headed out to Golden Ears. Usually it's around 45 mins East of Vancouver, but we got lost when the sign posting lamed out and it took us much longer. Not to worry we got to drive around the burbs of Coquitlam which we've never seen. Aside of the cookie-cutter strip malls and parking lots we did enjoy a housing area up the mountain with truly epic views of the Fraser Valley and the mighty Mount Baker in Washington State (US).

Parking up the car we hiked through the woods, following the river to Lake Allouette...

We came across some guy panning for gold ...

The river was great, a mixture of rapids and calm areas with a deep green hue. We saw a bunch of families sheltering in the shade from the heat and swimming the river.

We stopped for a picnic, then carried on into the woods..

Checking out the trees, plants and fungus amongst us ...

Arriving at the lake we sat around admiring the views, checking out the way the mountains fall into the lake. In the distance, the inner Coast Moutain Range tower the lake. There was several groups of people relaxing , some boating others bathing in the dwindling sun.

After a great afternoon we headed back down the trail, into the park lot and headed back into the city feeling energized by the fresh air and majestic nature.

Darth Mandu

The Force Is Strong With This One

Slush Puppies Are Go!

The Slush Puppy Posse headed up to Whistler for some slushy spring time snow fun. All the original flavours in attendence:- Oz-CrackBerry, B-ManduBerry & Me-MerrionBerry.

Heading up the mountain in the godola, we pose for our sub-alpine pictures ...

MerrionBerry taughting the enemy with his bow fingers

...

CrackBerry responded to emails on his BlackBerry.

And.. ManduBerry smiling and expressing .. "Yeeeaahhhhhh!"

15 mins later we're in the snowy realms of the glacial peaks. After tightning our boots, adjusting our eye-wear we're off down the mountain on a excellent run (The Whiskey Jack). We enjoyed it so much we spent entire day on it.

Heading back up the mountain for a 2nd run ...

... We get together for a end of season photo.

Passing over the Nintendo Terrain Park, I got this shot of boarder in-flight...

CrackBerry & ManduBerry On Whistler Mountain ...

Me & My End Of Season Photo ..

Driving home, all tired and happy ...

School Bus Ahead ...

1/3rd of the way home, we pull of the road to check out the Tantalus Range ...

.. And The Squamish Valley ...

We all had a great day, and agreed that was the official end of our season.

Pizza Vernazza

Pizza Vernazza, our latest pizza creation. Named after our fave town on the Cinque Terre, google it and check out the images - it's amazing. So what's in this pizza? Clamata olives, capers, sun-dried tomatoes (those scicilian ones from the neighbours italian friend), feta cheese and pesto. MmMm Mmmm it was good.

Queen Elizabeth Park

This is my favourite park in Vancouver. Named after my good old queen of England, it's perfectly charming, beautifully manicuted and delightul to stroll around. Enjoy the pictures ....

Years back the park site was a quarry. Once again the grand visionaries of Vancouver stepped in and transformed the site into a magnificent garden.

As you can see, the garden is showing off it's Spring/Summer collection.

If your ever in Vancouver, I recommend checking out the park in the early evening - it's pratically empty and the late sun intensfies the gardens colours.

The garden has a kool waterfall that is the perfect place to relax. In the mid-day sun it's shaded by a rock face and trees. On the some hot sunny days I can be found there.

Yum-Yum Beach Picnic

After a coding bonanza on a hot sunny day M. offered a picnic at the beach. "Living The Dream!, Let's Go!". So off we went to a fave beach in our old neighbourhood.

M. put together some lovely food complete with a bunch of Scicilan sun-dried tomatoes our neighbours friend had brought from Scicily. Mmm-MMm they were delicious.

We relaxed, taking in the sea breeze, the fabulous views, discussing ideas and reflecting on how epic the views are.

Percy Thrower

With all this gardening, my friends are starting to say "It's the Englishman in him. He feels compeled to garden". So I ask myself, do us Englishmen all have a little of Percy Thrower in us? Do we all move around the planet and want to beautify it? Not really, but I do!

Percy Thrower was a fantastic English gardener who had his own TV gardening shows when I was a kid.

Korean Pavillion

This pavillion can be found in Van Deusen Gardens. Check out the photo detail of the interior and the plaques outside. The words are, erm .., lovely.

Sunday Stroll In Van Deusen

Sunday afternoon rolled around and we had a few hours to spare before heading down to the cinema, so we decided to stroll around our new favourite park - Van Deusen gardens. Since we have a family membership, we try to go as much as we can :). Besides, it's an inspiring place. Here's some pictures we took, enjoy!