:-)

You know you've been living in Surry Hills for a while when the sight of hipsters relaxes you. Vancouver is lovely and the people are really nice, it's just taking a while to re-calibrate our perception of normality.* We went to Cirque du soleil and there was something relaxing about it,  then we spotted it Hipsters. I don't consider myself one (stinks of effort dude), but they become part of your life in Slurry.

A brief review: started strong with springy frogs, truly scary female acrobat on rings/ribbons, clowns great, interesting juggling act, strange carpet spinning women, when did circuses become sexy? Oh and set workers in costume and making scenery changes part of the act is great. Good sound and some rather special costumes.

*For instance we walked past a parking lot underneath an overpass behind the hockey stadium that had been filled with planter boxes and was growing lettuce and some rather bolted rocket.

Our current living arrangement!

Water view!

We can see the seabus ( a regular ferry service between the north shore and the city) scuttling across that expanse. Every now and then someone parks a great big ship in the middle of it.

While out of stair window,

A construction site! Which isn't as bad as it looks now that the demolition works has stopped shaking our whole building :)

Tacos

So we went to Whistler bike park on Sunday, there was a bit of rain about but lovely to be back on the bike and rapidly improving my riding. Lift assisted riding has left me hurting in completely different muscle group compared to riding the north shore. Briony was feeling a bit hungry so Rob (British Rob) made a taco.

Oh and Rainbows and scary big jumps

Coffee

No photo here, I am saving that for the time that I find one to my taste. The Vancouvians, is that the collective noun? Any way, the Vancovians and possibly the Canadians and perhaps north americans seem to take great delight in drowning their coffee in buckets of milk. It's a little weird, they seem to take great pains with the bean selection and the roasting, perhaps a little less with the brewing, but some places seem to take that very seriously as well. But when they have that espresso shot they then reach for a bucket, the normal size here is 12 fl oz or 345 ml, then they go for 16 oz and 20 oz. In contrast Australia typically serves a 220ml (8 oz) cup as the regular size.

I ordered a macchiato today and got a latte. I think it is time to cross over to Vancouver in search of somewhere that makes little coffees :)


Late edit: I just remembered drinking macchiatos in Italy and getting it wrong the first time. I mistakenly ordered a macchiato latte and got marked milk, perhaps that is what is happening here. Next time I am going to order the macchiato café and see what I get.

Those crazy Canucks

One item in what will be on going reportage of interestingly named or visually distinctive Canadian food products.

Vancouver Week One

Horribly over exposed. Time to got back to bracketing for this blog.

Tourist sights. We are trying to get as many in as possible before we realise we've lived here for two years and not been to X because only tourists go there. Above is a shot of the Lynn valley Canyon, which seems to kill a few people every year. Not just the bears to look out for then.