Broken Camera - Bummer

My trusty little Canon Elph is bust! The shutter halfs opens and sticks. Not sure what happened. It sucks, because I have some pictures ready for some fresh posts ... "Well, I Went To School In Olympia", "Sleater-Kinney Road", "My Birthday Party On The Beach" & "Sea Plane Ride To Vancouver Island".

What to do now? Pay for a riduculous expensive repair? Throw in some extra cash for a new one? I think I'll do that. Which one to buy? Research required. All I know is, for a pocket camera I'm not bothered about mega-pixels, since I always shoot on low quality then further compress and resize! .. I want good optics & non-lame white balance control.

Saturday Afternoon

After several hours of remote desktop coding it was time to head out and get some sunshine and nature. We headed down to our old beach (we lived a few blocks away from here) for a nice long walk..

Stopping For Photos ...

Moving on we took a walk by the pond and spotted this Canadian Goose with her younglings..

Then we headed downtown to Stanley Park. Here's lost lake with our friends apartment building in the backdrop ...

We drove around the park to Prospect Point, just in-time to see the sun fall behind Bowen Island...

Heading back to the car we spot some tourists trying to pet the rabid racoon. We warned them..

Passion Flower

We headed into the garden today and saw our first passion flower bloom. Yeahh!

Captain Marco In Action

Here's my brother-in-law, suited up and ready for some re-modeling action.

Rarrrrghhhh!

How Did I Miss This Album?

- After seeing this album in the top 10 of numerous All Time Greatest Album listings.

- After being a huge Rolling Stones fan of the late 60's->ealy 70's (Sticky Fingers, Let it Bleed, Beggars Banquet).

- After hearing friends rave about it

.. I finally check it out today. Oh my! It's brilliant!!! I'm not saying anymore, I'm kinda embarrassed and excited about it at the same time.

The Charlatans

After some delightful pre-functioning at Mr Maples fab apartment (see Kevin Keegan's Cousin) we headed down to the Commodore to watch The Charlatans. Thanks to Oz! again for tickets!!

If you don't know the Charlatans here's a quick rundown ... They came out around 1989 just as the Manchester scene blew-up. In fact, they're from just outside Manchester, erm, 20 miles away. LOL! ,So in international terms that makes them from Manchester. They had a storming debut album "Some Friendly" and for myself faded away until the epic "Wonderland" album came out. What an album that is too - just a perfect recording.



So here we are in 2006 and they're touring their new album Simpatico, which once again is fantastic!

Back to the night ... After a short cab ride we arrived, grabbed a table, grabbed some drinks and launched into the show. They slid through their way through their now great repertoire of songs. The sounds was once again perfect! Am I just watching accomplished bands with great sound engineers? I think so. They pulled off the new album flawlessly, dipped into their back catalogue and cherry picked some delicious tracks "Judas", "Then", "The Only One I Know". Come on! The list goes on...

Such a good night out, listening to a fab band, enjoying Mr Maples party and our friends from Manchester & Wales (I'll have to come up with a pseudonyme for this 2 soon)

Kevin Keegan's Cousin



Here's a mad one. M and I went over to my co-workers (Mr Maple) apartment for a BBQ yesterday afternoon. He has a sweet apartment downtown right next to Stanley Park on the 15th floor with epic views. His place overlooks the park, Lost Lagoon, English Bay, Downtown Vancouver and has panoramic views of the mountains. Wish I would've had my camera to take some pictures. I'll have to pop back around there, take some pictures and post them.

Back to the point - During the festivities Mr Maple put this record on and it turned out to be Kevin Keegan. "He's my cousin ya know!". "No way!" Kevin Keegan is a legend for the kids of the 70's. He sported mad footballing skills, iconic haircut (LOL!) and some kool charisma. I tell you, you never know about people sometimes. Mr Maple has been my friend for some years now and I never knew.


We all had a great afternoon, with Mr Maple and our friends who are from Manchester & Wales. Mr Maple is a perfect host - serving up great food, mixing tasty Cuban drinks. Cheers! Mr Maple.