I biked to work today. There and back is 26kms. It felt so good to be out there. I wore my old MEC yellow biking jacket from my cross-Canada trip. I love that jacket. I had two lights on the front, very bright flashing red on the back, and my yellow jacket can't be missed day or night.
I followed the bike route all the way there and back, so it was actually a very quite route, with almost no car traffic. The Author Lang Bridge was a we bit scary, but I handled it.
When I got home, I dug out my old side-view-mirror which I will attach.
Also felt good to get a solid exercise in.
BTW - I miss Adam. BC kinda sucks without him.
Saturday 24 November 2012
It Never Rains, It Pours
Unless you live on the west coast, where it never pours, it just rains.
Last week was so busy for me. I had lots of company and lots of events going on. It was great to finally see some friends, although I was pretty tired by the end of it all.
Nick (from Winnipeg) came in a week ago for business. He's the rep for biking/sporting goods and many of the head offices (Sugi & Ryder) are out here in Vancouver. He was here for a few days, but I only got to see him as I picked him up at the airport and we went for breakfast at the Elbow Room Cafe. It's OK that i only saw him for breakfast, as I always believe it's not how long you spend with someone for a visit, what is more important is the fact that you made a bit of time to see each other face to face and catch up over, say, breakfast?
With Nick's new professional life as repping for these companies, he needed a little help with his accounting, so I volunteered, and to repay me, Nick gave me one of his bikes. I've been wanting a bike to get around the city and to work when it's nice out. For one reason or another, Nick was able to spare a beautiful Devinci "Oslo". OMG the bike is perfect and exactly what I needed for Vancouver. I can't thank Nick enough for this. It's super light, it has fenders (for when it rains, not pours), it's even got reflective tires so I'm more apt to not get run over at night. I promptly went to Mountain Equipment Co-op and beefed up my bike lock system. I never want to lose this bike.
Friday eve Sarah came into town from Victoria. She's in the final push in her CGA studies, which brings her to Vancouver for studying at UBC every couple of weeks. It was great that she came over, as I really needed a good friend on Friday night. We went out to The Yaletown Brewpub where we had pizza & beer, and I was able to pour my heart out to her. You know those times when you need someone to listen to you. I wasn't looking for advice or a kind word or for her to help with my problems, I just needed her to sit there, listen and nod. thanks buddy.
With Sarah off to UBC on Saturday morning, I headed into work for the morning/afternoon until another gang of good friends came over on the ferry for the Red Hot Chili Peppers concert. Larry, Rachelle and Dan where staying with me, and Kenny and Megan were going to meet up with us at my place before the concert. I've only been out on the west coast for about 6 years, but these 5 friends are the ones that go right back to the beginning. Camping trips, ski trips, hockey games, concerts, birthday dinners, the list goes on what we do together. With me in Vancouver now, it was great to get back together with them all.
Megan & Rachelle. Megan just had little baby Frank a few months ago. She looks great and happy and doesn't look as tired as she claims (though I'm pretty sure she would love a solid 8 hours soon).
Larry, Dan and Kent. Along with some frosty beers, we got into my liquor cabinet and were tasting some of my whiskeys on had. It's nice to have friends over to try them out.
Before the concert we went to the Hurricane Grill. It's an awesome little restaurant/bar that serves great food, has great service and has (and I quote) "the best nachos I've ever had"
The Concert was amazing. Both Flea and Anthony are both 50 years old, and they were performing like they were 20. Flea looks so amazing, abs, muscles, zero body fat and when he took to the mike I had to giggle at his child like, squeaky voice, and then felt warm and fuzzy as he profusely thanked the crowd as if it was his first concert.
The gang having the time of their life
The RHCP concert was a huge surprise to me. Yeah it was a "rock concert" but those guys are very musical and talented. The guitar/bass got together for a "solo", the drummer was amazing. They had a few more musicians in the back (keyboards, percussion). It was totally worth $90. It's always great when it's a sold out show. Oh, and yes, EVERYONE sang along to Under the Bridge.
After the concert we took went to The Two Parrots, a pub close to my place. It's a very relaxing place with a good atmosphere, pretty good food, cheap. It's kind of a younger crowd. We didn't stay long though, maybe we are getting too old, so it was back to my place for a night cap, and everyone getting tucked into bed.
The next morning, with me the last one struggling out of bed, we headed to The Oxford for brunch and to watch and NFL game. Larry is a big Cowboys fan and they were playing. Nick from Victoria had taken the ferry over in the morning and had joined us for the Western Final CFL game at BC Place. The guys were all into Caesar's and shooters, where Rachelle and I stuck to tea and coffee.
Me and Larry at the game.
The Lions vs the Stamps. BC lost, but it was still a good game. I'm still a bit of a Bomber fan, so I didn't care too much that my new home team lost. I just enjoy being at the stadium.
Rachelle and Nick (in BC Lion orange)
After my friends left on Sunday, I was pretty much wiped out. I had a great afternoon nap on the sofa, and then I drove up Davie St and picked up some Vietnamese Pho soup. So good and exactly what i needed before bed (at about 8pm)/
Monday morning at work was tuff, but I was able to make it through the day/week as our new espresso machine got hooked up.
sometimes it really is the little things in life.
Last week was so busy for me. I had lots of company and lots of events going on. It was great to finally see some friends, although I was pretty tired by the end of it all.
Nick (from Winnipeg) came in a week ago for business. He's the rep for biking/sporting goods and many of the head offices (Sugi & Ryder) are out here in Vancouver. He was here for a few days, but I only got to see him as I picked him up at the airport and we went for breakfast at the Elbow Room Cafe. It's OK that i only saw him for breakfast, as I always believe it's not how long you spend with someone for a visit, what is more important is the fact that you made a bit of time to see each other face to face and catch up over, say, breakfast?
With Nick's new professional life as repping for these companies, he needed a little help with his accounting, so I volunteered, and to repay me, Nick gave me one of his bikes. I've been wanting a bike to get around the city and to work when it's nice out. For one reason or another, Nick was able to spare a beautiful Devinci "Oslo". OMG the bike is perfect and exactly what I needed for Vancouver. I can't thank Nick enough for this. It's super light, it has fenders (for when it rains, not pours), it's even got reflective tires so I'm more apt to not get run over at night. I promptly went to Mountain Equipment Co-op and beefed up my bike lock system. I never want to lose this bike.
Friday eve Sarah came into town from Victoria. She's in the final push in her CGA studies, which brings her to Vancouver for studying at UBC every couple of weeks. It was great that she came over, as I really needed a good friend on Friday night. We went out to The Yaletown Brewpub where we had pizza & beer, and I was able to pour my heart out to her. You know those times when you need someone to listen to you. I wasn't looking for advice or a kind word or for her to help with my problems, I just needed her to sit there, listen and nod. thanks buddy.
With Sarah off to UBC on Saturday morning, I headed into work for the morning/afternoon until another gang of good friends came over on the ferry for the Red Hot Chili Peppers concert. Larry, Rachelle and Dan where staying with me, and Kenny and Megan were going to meet up with us at my place before the concert. I've only been out on the west coast for about 6 years, but these 5 friends are the ones that go right back to the beginning. Camping trips, ski trips, hockey games, concerts, birthday dinners, the list goes on what we do together. With me in Vancouver now, it was great to get back together with them all.
Megan & Rachelle. Megan just had little baby Frank a few months ago. She looks great and happy and doesn't look as tired as she claims (though I'm pretty sure she would love a solid 8 hours soon).
Larry, Dan and Kent. Along with some frosty beers, we got into my liquor cabinet and were tasting some of my whiskeys on had. It's nice to have friends over to try them out.
Before the concert we went to the Hurricane Grill. It's an awesome little restaurant/bar that serves great food, has great service and has (and I quote) "the best nachos I've ever had"
The Concert was amazing. Both Flea and Anthony are both 50 years old, and they were performing like they were 20. Flea looks so amazing, abs, muscles, zero body fat and when he took to the mike I had to giggle at his child like, squeaky voice, and then felt warm and fuzzy as he profusely thanked the crowd as if it was his first concert.
The gang having the time of their life
The RHCP concert was a huge surprise to me. Yeah it was a "rock concert" but those guys are very musical and talented. The guitar/bass got together for a "solo", the drummer was amazing. They had a few more musicians in the back (keyboards, percussion). It was totally worth $90. It's always great when it's a sold out show. Oh, and yes, EVERYONE sang along to Under the Bridge.
After the concert we took went to The Two Parrots, a pub close to my place. It's a very relaxing place with a good atmosphere, pretty good food, cheap. It's kind of a younger crowd. We didn't stay long though, maybe we are getting too old, so it was back to my place for a night cap, and everyone getting tucked into bed.
The next morning, with me the last one struggling out of bed, we headed to The Oxford for brunch and to watch and NFL game. Larry is a big Cowboys fan and they were playing. Nick from Victoria had taken the ferry over in the morning and had joined us for the Western Final CFL game at BC Place. The guys were all into Caesar's and shooters, where Rachelle and I stuck to tea and coffee.
Me and Larry at the game.
The Lions vs the Stamps. BC lost, but it was still a good game. I'm still a bit of a Bomber fan, so I didn't care too much that my new home team lost. I just enjoy being at the stadium.
Rachelle and Nick (in BC Lion orange)
After my friends left on Sunday, I was pretty much wiped out. I had a great afternoon nap on the sofa, and then I drove up Davie St and picked up some Vietnamese Pho soup. So good and exactly what i needed before bed (at about 8pm)/
Monday morning at work was tuff, but I was able to make it through the day/week as our new espresso machine got hooked up.
sometimes it really is the little things in life.
Monday 12 November 2012
My big trip to Seattle,,,
,,,, ended up not in Seattle, but the lovely and beautiful Industrial Park in Sumner, Washington.
Last week I received word that the entire office would be headed to "Seattle" to visit the head office of "The Rock Wood Fired Pizza" (The Rock). You see in addition to Famoso Neapolitan Pizzeria (which there are 15 of in Canada), we also are the Canadian Franchisee for The Rock. Up till now there is only one in Canada, in Calgary, so it's not been much of an issue in our office. But there are now 4 more opening up, and we'll be playing a much more active roll.
The Rock (http://therockwfp.com/) is very different from Famoso. Started in Seattle, they have about the same amount of locations as us, about 10 or 15. And if you want to open a Rock in Canada you have to go through us at Famoso. Justin, Christian and Jason (my three bosses) were already down in Seattle with Sandy (the owner of the stand alone Canadian Rock in Calgary). So Kitson, Mitra, Polina and I all met at Polina's house in Kitslano at 7:30am to hit the road.
The visit to The Rock head office was quite interesting. We met Don and Jay who are the owners and were very interesting to listen to their story. Jay's son is an actor who was in Twilight (a vampire movie?) and his daughter is Jennifer Aniston's hairdresser. Not that I really care, but everyone else was in a tizzy about this info. Don admitted that most of the The Rock was a him being personally selfish adding whatever HE wanted to the restaurant.
Inside the head office was a "sitting room" that Don & Jay like to host guests. It had a sign above it that said "Saints and Sinners". Here is Polina being a Sinner
The room was pretty interesting with all these fake candles glowing.
Our tour of the head office moved onto the store room, where I snapped a few pics. that's Jay, second from the left.
More of the store room with Don on the far right.
Don owns a 65 Corvette with a new Corvette engine in it. It was pretty impressive.
It was a really great visit to Sumner, Washington, and Don and Jay were great hosts. They were both very interesting to listen to, and like all Americans I ever meet, were super friendly. The rest of the day we visited 3 Rock's in the Seattle area, driving around I was in the back seat with Mitra.
Always on the look out for something weird and kooky, only in America.
the next group of shots give you an idea of The Rock is like inside. I don't think I've ever seen anything like it before. The interesting thing is it's very popular with families and kids. that's Polina, Sandy and Jason.
though the restaurants have many unusual features, like the shipping containers above, there is always the theme of 70's/80's rock and roll with album covers everywhere.
A waste of perfectly good guitars? Perfect use for crappy guitars? or just an awesome chandelier?
They had shooters in Jello that you "inject". they were a lot of fun.
I ordered a 5 ounce Margarita that comes with a Corona tipped into in. it was actually delicious though I can't remember when I had a drink with 5 ounces of hard liquor in it. BTW you get to keep the bucket.
Once the evening snuck in, the real atmosphere on The Rock took over, with the lighting trusses shinning warm light over everything like you are at a rock concert. And everywhere you look is skulls, guitars and crumbling brick.
More drinks, this one was served in a lava lamp that lights up your drinks switching colours. We were injecting jello shooters into our Lava Lamp drinks.
No two The Rocks are the same, and everwhere you look there is something crazy and unique, like this church inside the restaurant that housed about 8 booths
I had the sampler of The Rock's beer they have made. It was actually really good and nothing like the canned American beer us Canadians are used too
The beautiful Polina enjoying a glass of The Rock's red wine. It's actually 50 or 60 dollars a bottle. They don't sell very much of it, but as I mentioned earlier, much of The Rock is just Don and Jay personal indulgences. The love red wine (and so does Polina)
It was a great trip, even though we didn't actually make it to Seattle, but instead Sumner, Renton and Tacoma. We made it back to Vancouver around 10pm that night, so it was a long day. The back of that Accura was starting to get pretty cramped. Next time, we're taking the Equinox, we're staying over night, and we are visiting the actual city of Seattle.
Last week I received word that the entire office would be headed to "Seattle" to visit the head office of "The Rock Wood Fired Pizza" (The Rock). You see in addition to Famoso Neapolitan Pizzeria (which there are 15 of in Canada), we also are the Canadian Franchisee for The Rock. Up till now there is only one in Canada, in Calgary, so it's not been much of an issue in our office. But there are now 4 more opening up, and we'll be playing a much more active roll.
The Rock (http://therockwfp.com/) is very different from Famoso. Started in Seattle, they have about the same amount of locations as us, about 10 or 15. And if you want to open a Rock in Canada you have to go through us at Famoso. Justin, Christian and Jason (my three bosses) were already down in Seattle with Sandy (the owner of the stand alone Canadian Rock in Calgary). So Kitson, Mitra, Polina and I all met at Polina's house in Kitslano at 7:30am to hit the road.
The visit to The Rock head office was quite interesting. We met Don and Jay who are the owners and were very interesting to listen to their story. Jay's son is an actor who was in Twilight (a vampire movie?) and his daughter is Jennifer Aniston's hairdresser. Not that I really care, but everyone else was in a tizzy about this info. Don admitted that most of the The Rock was a him being personally selfish adding whatever HE wanted to the restaurant.
Inside the head office was a "sitting room" that Don & Jay like to host guests. It had a sign above it that said "Saints and Sinners". Here is Polina being a Sinner
The room was pretty interesting with all these fake candles glowing.
Our tour of the head office moved onto the store room, where I snapped a few pics. that's Jay, second from the left.
More of the store room with Don on the far right.
Don owns a 65 Corvette with a new Corvette engine in it. It was pretty impressive.
It was a really great visit to Sumner, Washington, and Don and Jay were great hosts. They were both very interesting to listen to, and like all Americans I ever meet, were super friendly. The rest of the day we visited 3 Rock's in the Seattle area, driving around I was in the back seat with Mitra.
the next group of shots give you an idea of The Rock is like inside. I don't think I've ever seen anything like it before. The interesting thing is it's very popular with families and kids. that's Polina, Sandy and Jason.
though the restaurants have many unusual features, like the shipping containers above, there is always the theme of 70's/80's rock and roll with album covers everywhere.
A waste of perfectly good guitars? Perfect use for crappy guitars? or just an awesome chandelier?
They had shooters in Jello that you "inject". they were a lot of fun.
I ordered a 5 ounce Margarita that comes with a Corona tipped into in. it was actually delicious though I can't remember when I had a drink with 5 ounces of hard liquor in it. BTW you get to keep the bucket.
Once the evening snuck in, the real atmosphere on The Rock took over, with the lighting trusses shinning warm light over everything like you are at a rock concert. And everywhere you look is skulls, guitars and crumbling brick.
More drinks, this one was served in a lava lamp that lights up your drinks switching colours. We were injecting jello shooters into our Lava Lamp drinks.
No two The Rocks are the same, and everwhere you look there is something crazy and unique, like this church inside the restaurant that housed about 8 booths
I had the sampler of The Rock's beer they have made. It was actually really good and nothing like the canned American beer us Canadians are used too
The beautiful Polina enjoying a glass of The Rock's red wine. It's actually 50 or 60 dollars a bottle. They don't sell very much of it, but as I mentioned earlier, much of The Rock is just Don and Jay personal indulgences. The love red wine (and so does Polina)
It was a great trip, even though we didn't actually make it to Seattle, but instead Sumner, Renton and Tacoma. We made it back to Vancouver around 10pm that night, so it was a long day. The back of that Accura was starting to get pretty cramped. Next time, we're taking the Equinox, we're staying over night, and we are visiting the actual city of Seattle.
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