Well I have so many things I could post on now with all the travelling that I have done lately. But I thought the first thing I would comment on should be one of the great pieces of New Zealand film making I saw on the plane on the way home.
Black sheep is a piece of class work. It is all about some genetically modified sheep that go around eating people. A truly inspired idea for a movie. For those of my readers who are in Vancouver, I believe it is going to be released over there too so you will be able to witness first hand this marvel of cinematography. It is movies like this that really make me proud to be a New Zealander.
Friday, June 29, 2007
Monday, June 25, 2007
Update from the road
I know most of you have probably been pretty concerned for my safety as I travel around the US on the wrong side of the road, so I thought I would post a quick note to let everyone know that we have arrived in San Francisco without incident. Our journey has taken us from Las Vegas to Zion National park, then on to Bryce Canyon where we stayed at Ruby's Inn. Very nice place, but the food was not great. From there we moved on to Grand Canyon where once again the food was pretty bad. Then it was back to Vegas where a buffet awaited us. The king crab legs were particularly good. Next it was off to Yosemite, with some more decidedly average food. Then finally we travelled to San Francisco. So far the food here has been OK.
I found the driving to be just fine, however I had to do more of it than I thought I would as Dad kind of freaked out a bit. I have to admit it was pretty scary when Dad was driving so I understand why he was freaked.
Anyway we only have .9 miles to go to drop the rental car off.
I found the driving to be just fine, however I had to do more of it than I thought I would as Dad kind of freaked out a bit. I have to admit it was pretty scary when Dad was driving so I understand why he was freaked.
Anyway we only have .9 miles to go to drop the rental car off.
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Whistler, Victoria, Salt Spring Island
Well I have now officially left Canada. I am sitting in the departure lounge on the US side of immigration, waiting for another 2 hours for my flight to San Francisco. As there is not much else to do, I Figured this would be a good opportunity to update everyone on the last week.
On Sunday night Dad and Mum arrived after spending a week or so in Toronto where Zach (my nephew) was having surgery. On Monday we drove up to Whistler where we stayed at the Delta hotel. The weather on Monday was not great so we didn't really do much other than have lunch, walk around the village a bit and have dinner. Tuesday however was much nicer, so we hired some bikes and rode around the valley for a few hours, looking at a couple of lakes and various other spots where views of the mountains could be found.
Wednesday started with a rather early morning. It was a bit of a shock for me having to be up and ready to go by 7:30. Uncle Ted and aunty Alison were picking us up so that we could catch the the 9 o'clock ferry to Victoria. The weather while on the ferry was a bit overcast so photos didn't really look all that great, so sorry you will have to take the trip yourself, or maybe do a search on the interweb, someone else is sure to have taken some photos at some stage. The main activity planned for the day was a trip to the world famous Buchard gardens. As far as gardens go they were pretty good, the best I have seen, and I have seen a few in my time. I well recall the seemingly endless days of being dragged through the Hamilton botanical gardens or the botanical gardens somewhere in South Auckland. Boy did those trips drag on. But what a difference having a camera can make. I was well entertained taking photos of the flowers and trying to get a good shot of a bee on a flower. There were plenty of bees around but they just wouldn't sit still. Very frustrating.
I had been given the heavy responsibility of organising the accommodation for our trip and had booked us in to a bed and breakfast for a couple of nights in Victoria. The house was very old, and had that awful old house smell about it, especially in the foyer. The bedrooms were decorated in true B&B style, with floral wallpaper and floral bedspreads and floral artwork. Not exactly my kind of decorating style. The breakfast they provided was not bad. The first day I had their health mix cereal, it definitely tasted healthy. This was followed by bacon and eggs and 3 small mushrooms. I happened to be sitting next to uncle Ted, who doesn't eat mushrooms so I scored an extra 3. The second day I switched the cereal for a bowl of fresh fruit, it too was healthy but tasted somewhat nicer.
Thursday was an action packed day, starting with a 3 1/2 hour whale watching trip on a very fast zodiac boat. We got up to speeds of 92 km, that feels very fast on a little open boat. Our guide assured us that we were very lucky to see so many whales, he said there were about 60. I would have felt a lot luckier if the whales were doing a little more. They were in resting mode, where they just bob up and down for hours. Due to the tight restrictions placed on the tour operators, we were not allowed to get too close to the whales, or to get in their path. As a result even with my telephoto lens I couldn't get a good close up of the whales. We did get reasonably close to the seals though so I got a few shots of them.
After whale watching and a spot of lunch, we went to the ZipLine tour place. This involved wearing a harness and getting clipped on to a wire high up in the trees and zooming from tree to tree. I was surprised to see that Mum actually participated and didn't even look too terrified doing it. The last 2 wires that we went down were a lot faster than the other ones, and when you curl yourself up in to a ball you can get quite a bit of speed up. The poor tour guide almost wore a hole in his glove when he stopped me at the end of the wire. I think he thought I was going to bowl him over. Great fun.
On Friday we had a coffee at Dolce Vita, not too bad but nothing to write home about. Then we drove to the ferry that took us to Salt Spring Island. Salt Spring Island is full of very arty people, or hippies as Dad and uncle Ted called them. There are about 30 studios dotted around the island that you can drive to and check out their work. We went to a cheese shop and a bread shop. I had been looking forward to visiting the cheese shop, as I have bought some of the cheese the shop sells at Granville Island market, and it is highly recommended by John Bishop from Bishop's restaurant. There were lots of goats cheeses and a variety of olives that we sampled before buying a few tasty goats cheeses to nibble on over the next few days.
The accommodation we stayed in on Salt Spring was a lovely log cabin by a lake. It was a really nice spot. There were kayaks and canoes that were free to use so we went for a big canoe ride to the other end of the lake. The weather was really nice with barely a cloud in the sky.
Oh how quickly the weather can change, by the next morning it was raining again. Each Saturday there is a public market where most of the studios on the island come to the town of Ganges and sell there wares. There was a lot of arty stuff there. I wasn't really in the market for fancy vases or jewelery though so didn't buy anything.
There was not much else to report about that trip so I will leave it there. My plane is about to start boarding I think so I had better start packing up my computer. I will try and find time to edit so photos and add them to this post later on. We have 7 hours in San Francisco, so hopefully they have wireless internet there too.
On Sunday night Dad and Mum arrived after spending a week or so in Toronto where Zach (my nephew) was having surgery. On Monday we drove up to Whistler where we stayed at the Delta hotel. The weather on Monday was not great so we didn't really do much other than have lunch, walk around the village a bit and have dinner. Tuesday however was much nicer, so we hired some bikes and rode around the valley for a few hours, looking at a couple of lakes and various other spots where views of the mountains could be found.
Wednesday started with a rather early morning. It was a bit of a shock for me having to be up and ready to go by 7:30. Uncle Ted and aunty Alison were picking us up so that we could catch the the 9 o'clock ferry to Victoria. The weather while on the ferry was a bit overcast so photos didn't really look all that great, so sorry you will have to take the trip yourself, or maybe do a search on the interweb, someone else is sure to have taken some photos at some stage. The main activity planned for the day was a trip to the world famous Buchard gardens. As far as gardens go they were pretty good, the best I have seen, and I have seen a few in my time. I well recall the seemingly endless days of being dragged through the Hamilton botanical gardens or the botanical gardens somewhere in South Auckland. Boy did those trips drag on. But what a difference having a camera can make. I was well entertained taking photos of the flowers and trying to get a good shot of a bee on a flower. There were plenty of bees around but they just wouldn't sit still. Very frustrating.
I had been given the heavy responsibility of organising the accommodation for our trip and had booked us in to a bed and breakfast for a couple of nights in Victoria. The house was very old, and had that awful old house smell about it, especially in the foyer. The bedrooms were decorated in true B&B style, with floral wallpaper and floral bedspreads and floral artwork. Not exactly my kind of decorating style. The breakfast they provided was not bad. The first day I had their health mix cereal, it definitely tasted healthy. This was followed by bacon and eggs and 3 small mushrooms. I happened to be sitting next to uncle Ted, who doesn't eat mushrooms so I scored an extra 3. The second day I switched the cereal for a bowl of fresh fruit, it too was healthy but tasted somewhat nicer.
Thursday was an action packed day, starting with a 3 1/2 hour whale watching trip on a very fast zodiac boat. We got up to speeds of 92 km, that feels very fast on a little open boat. Our guide assured us that we were very lucky to see so many whales, he said there were about 60. I would have felt a lot luckier if the whales were doing a little more. They were in resting mode, where they just bob up and down for hours. Due to the tight restrictions placed on the tour operators, we were not allowed to get too close to the whales, or to get in their path. As a result even with my telephoto lens I couldn't get a good close up of the whales. We did get reasonably close to the seals though so I got a few shots of them.
After whale watching and a spot of lunch, we went to the ZipLine tour place. This involved wearing a harness and getting clipped on to a wire high up in the trees and zooming from tree to tree. I was surprised to see that Mum actually participated and didn't even look too terrified doing it. The last 2 wires that we went down were a lot faster than the other ones, and when you curl yourself up in to a ball you can get quite a bit of speed up. The poor tour guide almost wore a hole in his glove when he stopped me at the end of the wire. I think he thought I was going to bowl him over. Great fun.
On Friday we had a coffee at Dolce Vita, not too bad but nothing to write home about. Then we drove to the ferry that took us to Salt Spring Island. Salt Spring Island is full of very arty people, or hippies as Dad and uncle Ted called them. There are about 30 studios dotted around the island that you can drive to and check out their work. We went to a cheese shop and a bread shop. I had been looking forward to visiting the cheese shop, as I have bought some of the cheese the shop sells at Granville Island market, and it is highly recommended by John Bishop from Bishop's restaurant. There were lots of goats cheeses and a variety of olives that we sampled before buying a few tasty goats cheeses to nibble on over the next few days.
The accommodation we stayed in on Salt Spring was a lovely log cabin by a lake. It was a really nice spot. There were kayaks and canoes that were free to use so we went for a big canoe ride to the other end of the lake. The weather was really nice with barely a cloud in the sky.
Oh how quickly the weather can change, by the next morning it was raining again. Each Saturday there is a public market where most of the studios on the island come to the town of Ganges and sell there wares. There was a lot of arty stuff there. I wasn't really in the market for fancy vases or jewelery though so didn't buy anything.
There was not much else to report about that trip so I will leave it there. My plane is about to start boarding I think so I had better start packing up my computer. I will try and find time to edit so photos and add them to this post later on. We have 7 hours in San Francisco, so hopefully they have wireless internet there too.
Monday, June 18, 2007
As Promised...
Well I have been a little slack this week and am now way behind on my updates of my trip to Seattle, Whistler and Victoria. I kind of need to get a bit of sleep now before getting up insanely early tomorrow morning for my flight to San Francisco, so I will just post a few pictures of Seattle, and give a bit of an update on my last cafe.
Victrola cafe was very nice indeed. The location I visited was a pretty cool cafe, with great atmosphere. Very pleasant to sit in on a rainy Seattle morning. The latte was very tasty, although the milk texture was not quite as silky as the one at Vivace. The espresso was very nice though. I bought a coffee cup and saucer as a souvenir.
Here are a few quick photos I snapped during my visit. There are plenty more, but I need to spend a bit of time converting them to web friendly images, and given that I am already over a week behind that may not happen.
First up is Zoka, from across the street.
Next is Vivace, from inside.
And finally the big tower thing. Just to show that I did more in Seattle than jump from cafe to cafe.
Victrola cafe was very nice indeed. The location I visited was a pretty cool cafe, with great atmosphere. Very pleasant to sit in on a rainy Seattle morning. The latte was very tasty, although the milk texture was not quite as silky as the one at Vivace. The espresso was very nice though. I bought a coffee cup and saucer as a souvenir.
Here are a few quick photos I snapped during my visit. There are plenty more, but I need to spend a bit of time converting them to web friendly images, and given that I am already over a week behind that may not happen.
First up is Zoka, from across the street.
Next is Vivace, from inside.
And finally the big tower thing. Just to show that I did more in Seattle than jump from cafe to cafe.
Friday, June 8, 2007
Seattle first impressions
Well I have now been in Seattle for all of 2 hours and so far it has been great. My first stop was a coffee shop called Zoka. It was in the suburbs so it is not surprising that I didn't stumble across it last time I was briefly in Seattle. I started off with a small latte and a turkey sandwich, the latte was not bad, but could have been a little stronger, perhaps they could work on a better blend for milk based drinks. They presented it very well and prepared the milk exceptionally well. The turkey sandwich was very nice as was the bit of salad that came with it. After finishing the latte and sandwich, and briefly stopping by the washroom to blow my nose (stupid cold just won't go away), I decided to round of the meal with an espresso. The espresso shot was very nice indeed. All in all Zoka is a very nice cafe worth a visit. I have a couple of photos of the outside of the store, maybe I will post those later.
Next up I stopped off at Espresso Vivace. When I was in Seattle a couple of years back for a day I went to another one of the Vivace stores and was very impressed, so I was expecting a pretty good coffee from them today. They delivered on my expectations, my cappuccino was fantastic, perfectly textured milk and the espresso punched through the milk very well. The espresso shot that I finished my visit there with was also superb, great job mr barista chap. Once again, I have a few photos of the store, but still need to get them off my camera, maybe I will do that later tonight.
I am now in my hotel room and am deciding what to do with the rest of the afternoon. I might take a trip to the Pike Place market. It is pretty close to my hotel and I have heard that it is worth visiting.
That's all for now.
Next up I stopped off at Espresso Vivace. When I was in Seattle a couple of years back for a day I went to another one of the Vivace stores and was very impressed, so I was expecting a pretty good coffee from them today. They delivered on my expectations, my cappuccino was fantastic, perfectly textured milk and the espresso punched through the milk very well. The espresso shot that I finished my visit there with was also superb, great job mr barista chap. Once again, I have a few photos of the store, but still need to get them off my camera, maybe I will do that later tonight.
I am now in my hotel room and am deciding what to do with the rest of the afternoon. I might take a trip to the Pike Place market. It is pretty close to my hotel and I have heard that it is worth visiting.
That's all for now.
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Coffee, coffee, coffee, car, dinner
Well time is certainly going fast now. It is less than 2 weeks until I leave Vancouver. This week I have been tying up loose ends like paying my GST, transferring money back to NZ and giving my laptop back to my work (glad to get rid of that awfully slow laptop. I will never by an ASUS computer).
Today after giving back the laptop I decided to visit a bunch of my favourite coffee shops, for some of them it will probably be my last visit. As I have a rather annoying cold at the moment I decided to stay away from lattes, as I have found dairy products have never helped much with colds I have had in the past. So for the last week I have been sticking with americanos and straight espressos. For those of you in NZ an americano is a long black.
First stop was JJ Bean on Main St. This was by far my favourite americano of the week, they didn't water it down nearly as much as the others I have been drinking lately. The ginger and molasses cookie I had with it was rather forgettable though, very chewy and not much flavour.
Next stop was Wicked Cafe. I don't think I have ever had a non-milk based drink there before sticking to lattes in the past. They use the Black Cat blend roasted by Intelligentsia in Chicago. People rave about this blend on coffeegeek. It is probably a lot better as a straight espresso, but I didn't find it all that great as an americano. The Intelligentsia mug was pretty cool though, wouldn't mind getting me one of those.
The final stop was my good old favourite the Elysian Room. I was kind of over americanos by this stage and had an espresso instead and a glass of water. As per usual it was very nice.
The main reason for all these coffees was that I was filling in time before my rental car was ready to be picked up at 5:30. I got myself a nice new Chevrolet Impala with only 500K on the clock. It has been pretty nice to drive so far, it should be pretty good for highway driving too, so that will be handy for my trip to Seattle and to Whistler on Monday.
This evening I went out for dinner with Roz and Reuben. It will probably be the last time I will be out at a restaurant with them before I leave. I got to pick the restaurant, and went for Bishops, the restaurant owned by John Bishop. He is a pretty well known Vancouver chef and is responsible for a lot of the recipes I have been trying this year as I got his cookbook for Christmas from Roz and Reuben. I had salmon for starters, served three different ways, all of which were amazing. Next I had a lamb dish with four different types of lamb, a lamb chop, a meatball, a slice of roast lamb I think, and some braised lamb. It was pretty good, although not quite as good as the salmon was. Finally for dessert I had a apple, fig and honey bread pudding with a slice of blue cheese. It was very small, and very, very nice. I can't remember having any blue cheese that was as nice as that piece. I believe it was from Salt Spring Island, so hopefully I will find some there next week. The service at the restaurant was very good. The waiters were very friendly and helpful. There was an interesting looking contraption on display next to our table. When we asked the waiter what it was he said it was a duck press. They were really popular in the 1920's. Basically you cook a duck, cut of the breast for plating then put the rest of the duck in this machine and press all the juices out of the duck to be used in the sauce. Bishop's will prepare a duck in this way for you on special request, and you get to go out in to the kitchen to watch it being done. Would be a good evening I am sure.
Today after giving back the laptop I decided to visit a bunch of my favourite coffee shops, for some of them it will probably be my last visit. As I have a rather annoying cold at the moment I decided to stay away from lattes, as I have found dairy products have never helped much with colds I have had in the past. So for the last week I have been sticking with americanos and straight espressos. For those of you in NZ an americano is a long black.
First stop was JJ Bean on Main St. This was by far my favourite americano of the week, they didn't water it down nearly as much as the others I have been drinking lately. The ginger and molasses cookie I had with it was rather forgettable though, very chewy and not much flavour.
Next stop was Wicked Cafe. I don't think I have ever had a non-milk based drink there before sticking to lattes in the past. They use the Black Cat blend roasted by Intelligentsia in Chicago. People rave about this blend on coffeegeek. It is probably a lot better as a straight espresso, but I didn't find it all that great as an americano. The Intelligentsia mug was pretty cool though, wouldn't mind getting me one of those.
The final stop was my good old favourite the Elysian Room. I was kind of over americanos by this stage and had an espresso instead and a glass of water. As per usual it was very nice.
The main reason for all these coffees was that I was filling in time before my rental car was ready to be picked up at 5:30. I got myself a nice new Chevrolet Impala with only 500K on the clock. It has been pretty nice to drive so far, it should be pretty good for highway driving too, so that will be handy for my trip to Seattle and to Whistler on Monday.
This evening I went out for dinner with Roz and Reuben. It will probably be the last time I will be out at a restaurant with them before I leave. I got to pick the restaurant, and went for Bishops, the restaurant owned by John Bishop. He is a pretty well known Vancouver chef and is responsible for a lot of the recipes I have been trying this year as I got his cookbook for Christmas from Roz and Reuben. I had salmon for starters, served three different ways, all of which were amazing. Next I had a lamb dish with four different types of lamb, a lamb chop, a meatball, a slice of roast lamb I think, and some braised lamb. It was pretty good, although not quite as good as the salmon was. Finally for dessert I had a apple, fig and honey bread pudding with a slice of blue cheese. It was very small, and very, very nice. I can't remember having any blue cheese that was as nice as that piece. I believe it was from Salt Spring Island, so hopefully I will find some there next week. The service at the restaurant was very good. The waiters were very friendly and helpful. There was an interesting looking contraption on display next to our table. When we asked the waiter what it was he said it was a duck press. They were really popular in the 1920's. Basically you cook a duck, cut of the breast for plating then put the rest of the duck in this machine and press all the juices out of the duck to be used in the sauce. Bishop's will prepare a duck in this way for you on special request, and you get to go out in to the kitchen to watch it being done. Would be a good evening I am sure.
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Update on my life
Well, once again it has been a little while since my last posting so I guess I should write another update.
A few things have happened in the last few weeks. First of all I had a somewhat unexpected encounter with the police. It all started while I was sitting in my lovely basement having a quiet night in. Andrew my flatmate came in and asked if I could go see the police, as he had to go down to Tacoma for a conference so couldn't go. I thought about it for a few minutes and then decided that I would help him out. In the past I have certainly not made any great effort to get to know the police, not because I dislike them but rather I was just never overly interested in them. After going to see them I now have a new respect for what they do, I found I actually recognized a lot more of their work than I expected to.
Another thing that happened last week was that I finished working. Yep that's right I am now officially unemployed again. That means that I have a week of doing not a great deal before Dad and Mum arrive on Sunday. I guess there are a few things I need to do, like sorting out how much GST I owe the tax department, and figuring out what I will do with furniture, but for the most part I am not doing a lot. I think I may pop down to Seattle on Friday for a couple of days, that should fill in a bit of time. I didn't get to see much of Seattle when I was there for a night a couple of years ago, I basically just made it to a cafe and then walked back to my hotel. From memory there was some Johnny Cash tribute concert on TV that night so I just watched that. The concert was pretty good, although I feel that my time may have been better spent trying to see a bit more of the city. If I do end up going on Friday I will be sure to take some pictures and update everyone. There are a bunch of coffee shops down there that I would like to check out, hopefully some of them sell interesting cups that I can add to my collection.
A few things have happened in the last few weeks. First of all I had a somewhat unexpected encounter with the police. It all started while I was sitting in my lovely basement having a quiet night in. Andrew my flatmate came in and asked if I could go see the police, as he had to go down to Tacoma for a conference so couldn't go. I thought about it for a few minutes and then decided that I would help him out. In the past I have certainly not made any great effort to get to know the police, not because I dislike them but rather I was just never overly interested in them. After going to see them I now have a new respect for what they do, I found I actually recognized a lot more of their work than I expected to.
Another thing that happened last week was that I finished working. Yep that's right I am now officially unemployed again. That means that I have a week of doing not a great deal before Dad and Mum arrive on Sunday. I guess there are a few things I need to do, like sorting out how much GST I owe the tax department, and figuring out what I will do with furniture, but for the most part I am not doing a lot. I think I may pop down to Seattle on Friday for a couple of days, that should fill in a bit of time. I didn't get to see much of Seattle when I was there for a night a couple of years ago, I basically just made it to a cafe and then walked back to my hotel. From memory there was some Johnny Cash tribute concert on TV that night so I just watched that. The concert was pretty good, although I feel that my time may have been better spent trying to see a bit more of the city. If I do end up going on Friday I will be sure to take some pictures and update everyone. There are a bunch of coffee shops down there that I would like to check out, hopefully some of them sell interesting cups that I can add to my collection.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
