Vancouver

I'll start by saying I didn't do any stitching this last week, first because I went wandering off to the city, and then when I got home, I worked one day and promptly got the stomach flu which led to me calling in sick for the first time in around 9 years, bad me. Even after the ickiness left, I still felt like a narcoleptic piece of lint and ever time I sat down I dozed off. I'm feeling great today, but as a result of the ick, no new stitching, so here's some old stitching instead.... the very first one I did, from a learn to craft kit, and somehow this taught me to stitch right to left, I don't know how, but it's too late to change that habit now.

Beware, the rest of this will be photo happy
But on to my awesome, awesome weekend. I took the long way to Vancouver, as my friend Aaron didn't get of work till 3:30, and I had plenty of time.  Some people like to drive for the speed, I on the other hand, love winding roads, also I found a trail I don't remember seeing before, so of course I had to take it, and it

Random waterfall, just because

led me to this wonderful old bridge. When I arrived at the coast I met up with Aaron, dumped my stuff at his place and then we went to Ikea and Metrotown (huge mall) to shop, didn't actually buy anything, but it was fun to look.





We spent the next day on what I'll call Aaron's "let me show you all the cool places I've found" tour. I bought a day pass for local transit and we spent the day wandering the city on foot, by bus and by skytrain.

 

We met up with his friend Nick for supper at Aaron's new favorite restaurant and then got more of a tour from Nick as he's lived there longer, it included the Olympic Torch which I've wanted to go to for four years.

Then they came up with the brilliant idea of renting a Mini Cooper for a couple hours and checking out some Supernatural shooting locations.  Nick doesn't understand our obsession with the show, but he was happy to drive..

Chuck Hughes

The next day was  Eat!Vancouver and Cirque du Soleil's Totem. We spent all day at the food show, mostly watching the Celebrity Stage which featured three well known Canadian chefs, Vikram Vij. an indian chef, Rob Feenie, a local Vancouver chef who was the first Canadian to win Iron Chef America.  And Chuck Hughes, who has had a couple different shows, They were all wonderful, but I lucked out with Chuck.  He made this amazing cake

that looked relatively simple to make and when I got his autograph I asked him about it, he tried to give me the recipe, but said he made it up just last night and wasn't sure what all the measurement were.  Well the way the stage works, is the chef will ask the audience a couple questions, and the two people that get them right, get to eat what they prepare.  Aaron wasn't going to Cirque with me, so he met up with some friends, and I stayed at the show a while longer as Cirque was just a short walk away.  I went back to Chucks second show where he made virtually the same three course meal as the first show.  But one of the questions asked had been mentioned in the first show.  I knew the answer so I got to eat, a raw scallop and

prawn with chili sauce appetizer, a main meal of sable fish, potato salad and caviar, and for dessert HE MADE THE CAKE AGAIN, and I got to eat it, it was amazing, even better than I thought it would be.
Then I went onto Cirque, and it was amazing, as they always are, if you ever get a chance, go see them. It doesn't matter which show, they are all awesome.

I came home the next day, took the short route this time, about 5 hours if you don't stop and wander, which of course I always do.  I had to stop at the Othello tunnels, a pathway along an abandoned railway that leads into the amazing Coquihalla canyon.

As for what I watched, this was mainly before I left

The West Wing S07 E19-23 - All finished, it had a great ending too. Not sure what series I’ll start next, torn between Robotech and  a rewatch of Veronica Mars now that it has a decent ending due to the new movie


Merlin S03 E09- S04 E02 Ohhh Morgana is getting deliciously evil.

Brenda Starr - This is a thoroughly  ridiculous  movie, I love it, of course have a suave Timothy Dalton in it doesn't hurt.

Godzilla - When visiting a friend in the city you have to go to a movie right? And for me that means a disaster movie. This was a fun one, though the price of Vancouver theatres gave me a heart attack.