What the hell is going on..

Maybe I should have rubbed the lucky red lion's head, or stick my hand in his mouth (whatever is appropriate). That way I may not have contracted the latest in a long line of colds.

I might just have gotten lead poisoning instead..

Vanilla Sky

Burp

Just back from having my dinner at West... donchaknow. It's part of Dine Out Vancouver this year (where a number of restaurants put on a set menu for a price greatly reduced from that of a normal night at their restaurant. I love Dine Out Vancouver.. I like to pretend I am a rich person/celebrity/rock star, for whom this restaurant (and those of it's ilk) would be run-of-the-mill.

Tonight I played the part of a Sex and the City character, as I went for grub with 3 lady accomplices. Which character I'm not sure, the conversation didn't get around to us figuring that out...

You Just Can't Keep a Good Albino Down

Just back from witnessing the inimitable Baby Dee live at the Gallery Gachet.. I was bowled over. I was half expecting to be, but I just didn't know HOW great she was going to be. If you get the chance to see her GO! Flowers on the Tracks is one of my favourite songs, and while we weren't blessed with any harp playing, there was fantastic ivory twinkling going on. Aswell as the accompanying cello and violin.

I keep toying with the idea of getting a Lomography camera. They just seem to be endless fun (if the box is anything to go by). They do seem a bit on the pricey side, so if any body has one/knows somebody who has one.. are they worth it?

Take 2

For my sins.. of falling asleep. Here is picture number 2 of a road full of sun-kissed trees. Ahhhh I can smell summer in the air

Stand By Me

I fell asleep! I fell asleep and FORGOT to blog! I have no idea what came over me.. I watched the movie "It might Get Loud" with Jimmy Page, the Edge,and Jack White. Good little movie by the way... well, if you like the guitar that is. But that doesn't take away from the fact that I FELL ASLEEP!

Dexter

.. we just have 1 episode left. Sooo good. The kittens all lived through the night, yay! They were just as lovely and cute today. I am a little obsessed with this song toady after it came up on random on my ipod.

3 hours old

This kitten (and 5 others) were the result of a cat C-Section I had part in today. We thought they were going to be dead, but as it turned out they all started to breathe... 

I hope they live through the night.. they're so small.

Is It Wrong..

... that I feel a little sense of rejection, every time the person sitting next to me on the bus gets up and goes to a more spacious seat when it arises?

Just a thought...

Recycling Renegade

We don't have a blue bin.. or a yellow bag. Meaning we have nowhere to put out recycling for the city to pick it up. Disaster.

In the past we have snuck our recyclable items into the neighbours boxes/bags late on the night before collection. Thereby offloading our plastics and tins, but not stealing space from them. Tonight I am alone and loaded with 4 full bags.

I await nightfall...

This lady's garden is amazing. She also has 3 Scottie dogs that bark at your approach. She lives near me, and I just wish I could squeeze the whole garden into 1 picture. But alas, I am but human.

Sew buttons

I love days off, they afford me time with my sewing machine. I inevitably get bored of my wardrobe, so I like to drag out the old machine and get to work altering and repairing. It's a hell of a lot cheaper than going out and buying new stuff. So far I've made a top out of a dress, a pair of shorts out of jeans that had badly ripped, and I cut the arms out of a denim jacket. Hurray for scissors and thread!

I have a fancy for bricks like this.. they're almost always painted white though. Primary colours are the way to go I think.

Ickle Weeds

I have always loved the idea of gardening. Then I go to do it, and run into the same problem every single time.. weeds. I mean like, what IS the point of them? Luckily I don't have a garden to worry about, but it is my responsibility to stay on top of the little green buggers around the perimeters of the place where I work. (I live in the same building). It's worse to weed them here, because they're wedged between a literal rock and a hard place. Thus I end up with a handful of leaves and a minefield of soon to re-sprout green monsters.  

AND my hands now smell of cheap gardening gloves... Harrrumph

Sunday Spin take 2

I really hope we can keep this Sunday outing thing going.. well when Oscar is in Vancouver that is. It's nice to get out and about and explore when you can. Today we went for a drive to Iona Beach out by the airport. I was a bit excited as apparently you can see whales out there sometimes. Albeit with binoculars.. which we don't have. I was counting on my excellent vision, but unfortunately the tide was out.

The sun had a cool halo thing around it that I'd never seen before. I was convinced it was the hole in the ozone, and that we were in fact getting burned alive. I also spent a lot of time looking at the sun... possibly reducing my aforementioned excellent vision.

Fish n Chips Friday on Saturday

Fish n chips is a real Friday thing. I loved Fridays at home because I knew my Mam would have picked up a lovely bit of whiting in Burke's fish shop, to put on the side of a lovingly made heap of home-made chips and coleslaw. Yum.. so good. We've found a place in Vancouver that does a not half bad fish n chips, where we went this evening for dinner. It felt a bit weird eating them on a Saturday, but I quickly got over it.

The fish n chips are still a mere shadow of the Mammy's though :)

Another day, another dollar

You can smell the summer in the air... kayak time is near (well, here for some lucky people already out on the river).

The night of second gig in a row

So I seem to have completely lost the run of myself, and in a show of reckless abandonment I have gone out on the second night in  a row.. A SCHOOLNIGHT! I am so mad. I thought I would die of tiredness in work today, but in the spirit of trying to make myself 17 again I decided to go out all over again. This time I saw Breakestra.

It was so worth the pain of work tomorrow. I will curse my age whilst scraping my face off the pillow in the morning, but I had a good old dance for my troubles!

Today.. I Are Most Wanting To Be..

Florence.. from Florence and the Machine. Just been to see them, and now I want to BE her.

It's been quite a while since I've seen a performer give so much on stage.

Kudos

Spring Cleanin

Today I had the mammoth undertaking of cleaning our not-so-tiny one bedroom apartment to within an inch of its (and my) life. There was moving of things, sweeping, vacuuming, mopping, wiping, spraying and scrubbing. I then promptly congratulated myself with a tall caramel frappacino. I am a leading cast member of "The Real Housewives of Vancouver"

Thrift Store Sales

I love sifting through second-hand stores. A trait I have in my blood, handed down to me. I get a great thrill picking up clothes/pictures/trinkets for next to nothing. Today I found a rather nice denim jacket for $5. When I went to pay, I was informed by the lady at the counter that it was, i fact, half price. Walking away with a jacket for $2.50 gives me a warm feeling in my heart...

Today's picture is another one taken on my phone. It's a painting of a smoke stack on the wall of Little Mountain Gallery. The window is real. I was thoughtless, and left my camera at home when heading out this morning. I am liking the old camera on the phone though.. good to get me out of a tight spot.

Sunny Sunday Steveston

Today we went for a good old Sunday spin to Steveston. After a wonderful brunch of Irish sausages and rashers thanks to Claire and Tom. Steveston felt like an entirely different part of BC, and not just 30 minutes from our apartment. There were lots of people flying kites (like the closing scene of Mary Poppins), and plenty of dogs being walked.

The evening was rounded off with a rather enjoyable Charlotte Gainsbourg gig at the Vogue Theatre. If only all days could be like this...

Peeping Tomasina

Walking home from the supermarket today, I had a good look around my neighbourhood. I saw houses I had never noticed in over 2 years of living in the same area of Vancouver. This one struck a chord with me, I kinda liked that the waders were hanging on the porch.. in anticipation of a Sunday off. 

I also thought it was a little eerie however. It sort of reminded me of the house from 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre'... welcome to East Van!

Sleepy Time

Goodnight to all :)

Windy City

Even though I don't live in Chicago, I think Vancouver could well steal the moniker having lived through a virtual hurricane last night.. well I'm being a LITTLE dramatic but it was mad windy. I thought I'd wake up in Oz, having landed on a stripy-legged witch. 

On a different note, we had a French Bulldog in for surgery today. I want one soooo much.

W is for Waterford

a.k.a Home. W is also for 'Woodward's', an old institution of the retail variety which seems to hold a lot of fond memories in people's minds here.. I don't know why. I never quite formed an emotional attachment to 'Shaws'.

Is it nationwide yet?

Kawaii 5-0

Today I spent some time at a rather large Japanese Dollar store. I ended up with a basket on my arm tossing things in left and right. I caught myself doing this and had to have a stern word.. Do you really NEED a towel in the shape of a dog? While I answered this with a negative, I still ended up walking away with 10 small packets of tissues (with cute Japanese cartoons on), a pack of cactus-shaped gel window stickers, and a sugar pot in the form of a chicken with a shell on it's head.

So as you can see I JUST stuck with the essentials.

Rain Clouds R Purdy

Not the biggest fan of rain, but the preceding clouds are always a nice sight I feel. 

Still not feeling the Mae West today, so just took this one on a brief break from the sick couch.

Easter feaster

Feast day is an appropriate term when it comes to Easter. Seeing as it turns out to be a "who can stuff the most chocolate into their face competition", pretty much every year. Thanks to the wonderous Deirdre, there is currently a truck-load of Easter eggs residing at our place. Albeit, a truck-load that is being successfully pilfered.

In other news, we watched "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" AGAIN today. I think I can safely say I've watched it about a million times.. and I don't think anybody could contest that. I love this song that features heavily in it.

Happy Bday Mags!

Hope you had loadsa fun! As for me I'm off to bed with a cold and a 'Lemsip' Canadian substandard equivalent.

This doorway is opposite the pub we were in tonight. I thought it was very 'Metropolis'/'Citizen Kane', and very beautiful..

The Allotments

Community Gardens are a big thing in Vancouver. Well, green spaces in general. It makes a lot of sense when there are so many apartment dwellers, who would have to otherwise quell their green fingers. One such community garden is located on Davie Street, downtown. It's so beautiful in the summer due in large part to the resident gardeners' penchant for sunflowers.

There is also some urban knitting featured on the fence around the garden. It's a bit grubby looking now due to the rainy winter, but it still adds a bit of something different.

It's black or white

I don't know why this caught my eye... it just did. White shoes, black socks. Black shoes, white socks. And they were attached to a cute old Asian couple. All good.