Happy Birthday M

It's M's big day - Happy Birthday!!!!

Snowy Vancouver

We awoke to a winter-wonderland today. Several inches of snow fell. After doing my neighbourly duties of snow-shovelling, throwing snowballs at the neighbour kids ... I headed off to work to find this scraggly-ol' snowman. The local kids where all out sledding down the park hill, some couple 'cross-country' skiied to work and over confident motorists skidding around the roads.

Vancouver Walk>About

We met friends on Sunday and went for a long walk. I guess we had a lot to talk about, because we just kept on going and going. Probably a bit too far actually, we clocked in ~6 miles on the mile-o-meter.

Starting off on the sea-wall and headed into Stanley Park and checked out the totem poles...

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... then along the North wall before deciding to head through the woods to Beaver Lake...

.. we watched a heron stalk it's prey, poised and stillv over an ice hole. After a short break we carried on through the woods, checking out the old growth trees before emerging on 2nd beach, just in time to catch the last rays of the day illuminate the trees ....

.. before the sun went down for the day. Lovely.

Sunny Vancouver

It's been nice and sunny here the last few days, a nice break after rope-a-dope storm punches that have been rolling through. Hey, I'm not complaining ... there's some epic snowboarding going on in those mountains ... but Vitamin D au natural is required periodically.

I peeled away from coding this afternoon, headed out on the deck and took some photos .. watched the seaplanes land, and the late afternoon sun colorize the peaks orange ... all good fun for the soul.

Lunch In The Emerald City
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We headed down to visit M's folks this weekend - on the way back we stopped for lunch in Seattle. Heading up the interstate highway hunger struck, so we pulled off and ate at one of our fave pizza places - Pegasus Pizza on West Seattle Beach. It was super sunny - but super cold - day. We ate a Greek pizza and watched the ferries roll by en route to the islands. Check out the picture - bottom left there's some divers. I learnt to dive in West Seattle years ago.

Heading back to the freeway we spot this kool house - which is for sale if you want it. Hopefully a developer doesn't buy it and bulldoze it, and replace with a condo building. West Seattle has lots of quirk - buildings, restaurants, people & gardens. It's a very nice place with lots of beach, great view of the ocean, Olympic Mountains & downtown.

Kormacurry>>Sound>>System

Over the years I've written a number of tracks / loops / beats .. so I decided to a selection of 6 onto a MySpace site. CLICK HERE to check them out. Enjoy.

Powderhound Session 2008.5

Striker called me and said the Frisco Kid was going to be in Whistler on a business meeting, would I like to come up and hang out on a lads weekend? "Errm, yes!". That sounded great, plus it`d be great to see Frisco Kid. Not fancying driving up the sea-to-sky highway I caught the Greyhound bus. The Greyhound has a bad reputation in North America for being a little bit slummy. I had a good ride with all the jolly Canadians all looking fwd to some world class boarding. I fell asleep on the bus, and awoke to have the dude next to me asleep on my shoulder. :)

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The dudes were waiting for me at the bus stop - Striker, Frisco Kid, The Menace and The Developer. First port of call - a big slap up Indian meal then off to the Irish Pub. Much fun. Whistler was covered in snow and the walk-ways surrounded by snow banks - haven't seen it like that for a while.

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Following day, we .. the Best Of The West reps (Vancouver, Seattle & San Francisco) hit Blackcomb. The Menace and The Developer know this mountain well so they gave us an excellent introducing us to some epic runs on the back side of the mountain. I`m a believer again. The powder was deep and epic ... weather mixed .. snowy, then clear, then windy .. then calm. Weather changed per run based on exposure to the elements. Much fun ... lots of laughs ... and great boarding all day.

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Later in the afternoon, exposed near the glacier peak the chairs broke down. We were left dangling for around 15mins with winds battering us. Periodically they'd start it up and slam on the breaks ... the chairs bounced and swung. There's a clip in the movie of this. A great, great day.

Powderhound Session 2008.4

A break in the storms, so we decided to headed to Cypress. It's been a little foggy on all our sessions there. We deserved a break. We got it - clear skies, great visibility and lots-and-lots of powder. Manner from heaven.

Since powder is a a treat, and more commonly we board on groomed surfaces it's always a little hard to get used to it. A few runs focusing on control and your away. We had a great time getting in lots of runs, everyone was going bonkers -- some losing control.

Later in the evening the snow closed in again, dusting the powdery goodness making it even better.

10 PRINT " RIP MARTIN "
20 GOTO 10
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Sadly and ex co-worker of mine passed away over the holidays. I and friends attended his wake and celebrated his life yesterday.

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I worked with Martin for 4 years and he was nothing short of an unbelievable engineer and a funny cool dude. Hundred's of people attended his wake to celebrate his life. I was blown away by his adventures, his creativity and the amount of community building he's done over the years - it was truly inspiring.

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RIP Martin

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Click Here for Martin's Memorial Page

Bowen By Dark

Headed out for big day out yesterday. Started in Mount Pleasant with a tasty breakfast before heading over to Horseshoe Bay to catch the Bowen Ferry. Ooops, forgot to check the schedule and missed the 12pm ferry. What to do? The solution was to walk around on the rocks for a an hour, head up Cypress Mountain to check out the views before coming back for the 2:30.

Arriving at Bowen Island, we checked out the local coffee shop ... a quick coffee and spinach pie later we caught the trail to Killarny Lake which turned out to be a little further than we thought.

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A 1/3rd of the way around the lake night set in so we walked miles around the lake in the dark woods. A few miles later we opted for the road back into town ... this time not sheltered from the wind and rain. Clearly soaked and chilled, we call our friends who live on the island for some relief. We arrived at their place, slapped on some shorts, walked into the woods behind the house and jumped in their hot tub for some fast warmth whilst our clothes warmed in the dryer. Ahhh, much relief and epic'ness as we watched the trees sway in the wind. Our friends are big organic eaters, so exiting the warmth we enjoyed some super good food. Can it get any better? It did, they slapped on the Planet Earth DVD! After much rejuvenation and feeling better than Luke Skywalker after a couple of days in the Bakta fluid we headed back for the last ferry and checked out the stars from the boat feeling all warm and fuzzy.

About A Son

We headed downtown last night to watch the new documentary on Kurt Cobain. A great film and well crafted idea. The film is based on a series of audio recorded interviews set to imagery of the Pacific Northwest - it works really well.

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Set in a number of locations - Aberdeen, Montesano, Olympia and Seattle .. Kurt talks about his childhood, his first musical adventures, his teenage years, adventures in Olympia & Seattle. It gives a lot more insight into who he was. I won't say more except if your into this kind of thing you'll really enjoy the film.

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Looking at the backdrop imagery was really moving for M and I. It brought back so many memories of our life and adventures over the years in Washington State. We knew all the places and towns. In Aberdeen I spotted a restaurant we ate at the 1st time we headed out to the Ocean, in Olympia - the places we used to hang out at, the road Uncle Mike lives on and in Seattle - our neighbourhood, fave bars, fave restaurants and the building were I worked when I first moved to Seattle. There's some wonderful timelapse imagery showing the beauty of the city. It's interesting to note how alternative Seattle is, which really comes through on the film.

Powderhound Session 2008.3

Cypress Mountain: What looked a little dodgy from the outset - limited visibility, light-to-moderate winds turned out to be a goodtimes session. There was lots of new snow, low attendence and we found a great new run. Me and Flemish Economist headed up arond 7pm, arriving intime for the night-owl rate that starts at 7:30pm. My camera wasn't charged, so no movies of piccies from last night. We checked out both mountains, getting a bunch of runs inbefore heading back down the mountain at 10:15pm.

Cypress is a really great mountain. A number of the 2010 Olympics are being held there. A new high-speed quad chair and 40% of new terrain has been added this season. It's great that it's a non-production getting up there. A call after work, a quick decision to go and you can be up there in no-time-at all.

Here's a a freshly uploaded video for Powderhound Session 2008.1

Happy New Year

M and I wish you a Happy New Year and wish the best for you and your families.

Here's to kicking it up a notch 2008, and let's make this the best year ever.

Remember what's important in life .. your friends, your family and your experiences. Don't over consume, share and be generous on all fronts. Go greener, walk more and expand your community by getting to know your neighbors.

Here's 'Dinner For One'. This is a German tradition for many-many years and apparently it's played, In English!, prior to the midnight hour. The Prof says folks back home joke by saying 'same procedure as last year!' . You'll see. check out the video below..

Powderhound Session 2008.2 - Mt Baker

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For New Years we headed down to Washington State, USA to join friends at Mt Baker for some mountain fun. Mt Baker is an active volcano standing 10,000ft and 2 hours drive from Vancouver.

After an easy drive we met the gang just as they were heading out to snowshoe. We said our hello's then headed to the cabin to make lunch and jump in the hot-tub Super nice sitting in there amongst the snow and trees trying to reason if there was more to life than fine wines & Belgium chocolates - 'luxury'

In the evening everyone came back, so after warming up we all 'mucked' in a made a fab dinner. Lots of laughs and japes and delicious food. The Prof's & Kerstin's friends from back home in Germany where there - Sasha & Arrelia along with our neighbours Pat & Jo

Following day we headed out for a truly awe-inspiring Powderhound Session. The clouds cleared giving way to lots of sun, which was the perfect compliment to the deep'ish powder. The views were stunning as you'll see in the movie. Baker has a great vibe, and it's nestled into some stunning terrain. I think I prefer this over Whistler. Everyone had a blast.

In the evening we headed down to the pub for Part#1 of a epic New Years Celebration. You just can't beat Washington State pubs - they're mostly always unique and have great atmosphere's - plus tasty micro-brew beer. Sasha made the mistake of doing an impression of the Hans & Franz skit -- "We're going to pump you up!" .. and that became my joke of the night. Part#2, we ate leftovers and got to share some of the great German New Years traditions - 'Dinner For One' - which apparently has been playing in Germany for 30 years -- well funny. Good Good times for sure.