Yes, I am back in Vancouver, having flown in on January 1. All is well with home here. The cleaning lady had been in my absence, the mail collected by good neighbor Joan, and the car even started on the first try! All that was required was a run to the smoke shop to order my Sunday New York Times (at $11 a pop, they don't get it in unless someone orders it) and a grocery run, and I was back at work on January 2. After all, I am here to work!
It was good to see old colleagues and catch up on the gossip, but the files were waiting! Didn't even go out to lunch (or dinner, for that matter), and stuck to my yogurt and fruit. A good start! By Friday afternoon, though, I was off again. Friend Arlene was celebrating a birthday (and no, I won't tell you which one, although she is not a blog follower and I could probably get away with it!). My new Nexus border pass had, thankfully, arrived in my absence, and the rain cleared in time for me to have an easy drive down to Seattle. I started the weekend with friend Mariah (who, as you no doubt recall) also lives down there; we went to dinner at our favourite Chinese dive (whose name I can never remember, if I ever knew it).
The next morning, I was off to Arlene's, who has a lovely house on Queen Ann hill (is that right? I should know that.....), where she had prepared her usual, simply elegant, meal.
As you can tell from the quality of the light, the weather was, for a change, clear. Crisp, but clear.
We had planned a walk around Green Lake. One of the (gratefully, few) legacies of my several bouts of pneumonia is that I have difficulty breathing in the cold. I was game to try, though, and it was glorious, and even a brisk enough walk that I didn't want to interrupt the flow to take pictures. For those of you who haven't been to Seattle, or at least not recently, it is a glorious urban park, and a lovely walk.
That was it, though; we gave up on the outdoors, and wandered over (by car, I might add, with the usual Seattle difficulty in parking) to a lovely little neighborhood movie theater, which looked like a converted townhouse, and saw the newest Coen brothers movie, Saving Llewelyn Davies. All the critics have been raving about it, I know, but I guess I am too stupid; I just plain didn't understand what they were getting at. Was it a great portrayal of New York life in the 50's? Sure. But I got that about 5 minutes in. The acting was good, especially the lead (name?) who both sung and acted the role as if he were born to it. Nonetheless, iIf the film had lasted 5 minutes longer, I would have run screaming from the theater.
That excruciating piece of business was followed, however, by a lovely dinner at a place called Dahlia's, one of Tom Douglas's several restaurants. It has apparently been around for a while (although recently moved), but neither Arlene nor I had been there and it seemed like a good place for a celebratory dinner (that pesky birthday, remember...)
Highly recommended, on all counts. The food was, as was to be expected, lovely, but the service was beyond the expected. I turned up my nose at the mashed potatoes with my steak (silly me - I thought "buttered potatoes" meant buttered potatoes) I didn't have to say a thing - the turned up nose was apparently enough - a substitution was made cheerfully, with no cost and almost no wait. As far as the atmosphere, it was, as you can probably tell by the picture, my favourite kind of restaurant, the adult kind, with no children or cell phones in sight, plenty of room between the tables and no noise. And best of all, Arlene's choice of coconut cream pie, came with one candle but (thankfully) no singing!
After a good night's sleep (walking will do that for you, among other things not mentionable in a G-rated blog) will do that for you, we were ready for more girl-talk, and, of course, more food, this time a very trendy noodle house called Dim Tai Fung, in University Village. So trendy, in fact, that by the time we arrived at 11 A.M., there was an hour wait. We lucked out with a table in the bar, and lucked out still further with a great waiter, and a lot less fuss and feathers than we would have had in the (huge) main dining room, which was full of large groups and, well, imagine, children!
The food was great, quite delicate flavours and textures, again, highly recommended.
Followed by a (admittedly shorter than the previous day's) walk, this time around the open air mall. which is enough of a dying breed for me to consider it a cultural expedition.
...followed by a blessedly uneventful drive home (the drive, for those of you not from these parts, can be from 2 1/4 hours to 4 hours depending on the traffic and the border).
And Monday was back to work. Although I started out with the best of intentions (not about working, I really don't have problems sticking to that. They give me files with deadlines, I do them.), but about the going out to eat part.
By Tuesday, I was heading out to lunch with colleague Susan (who doesn't much like to have her picture taken). Wednesday, I went out to eat with colleague Andrew (who is now sharing an office with me, as he has retired and gone on contract, like me)....
and former colleague Eric....
...who always makes me laugh! The restaurant was Two Chefs and a Table, a neighborhood dive which has mad previous appearances on these pages. (Aside from the fact that I do seem to return to restaurants I like, the industrial parks which populate the neighborhood where I work do not offer a lot of choices), where their signature dishes are tater tots fried in duck fat and mac and cheese!
A good rainy evening activity is, of course, the movies, and as it is Oscar season, there seem to be some good, adult movies around. There is a multiplex just five minutes from my office and on the way home, so a 4 o-clock movie is a perfect pick-me-up. I started off with American Hustle on Tuesday, The Wolf of Wall Street on Wednesday, and, on Saturday afternoon (and yes, I was working on Saturday), the newest arrival, August: Sage County.
Briefly reviewed, in order. American Hustle, apparently loosely based on America's Abscam scandal in the 70's, was fun, although really, I'm not sure I would find it Oscar worthy, except maybe for one or two of the performances. The Wolf of Wall Street was Bonfire of the Vanities on steroids. It was sort of interesting to see DiCaprio going from tycoon Gatsby to Tycoon Wolfsohn. However, I don't know whether it was all the sex, drugs and profanity, or maybe because it didn't seem like all that much of a stretch to me, having been way too close to Wall Street during my years working at the bank(s). It just made me really uncomfortable. And (those of you who know me well enough know this is true), while I do not usually see anti-Semites under every bed, there were altogether too many Jews in this movie behaving badly to be truly enjoyable. I was glad to have seen both movies, but to say I enjoyed them would be putting too fine a point on it.
August: Sage County was the best of the lot. I had seen the play (written, I believe, by Tracy Lett - ask me why I remember that?) twice, once in Ashland, Oregon and once here in Vancouver. It was wonderful in the theater, and actually just as wonderful in the movies. Not only were the actors fabulous - Meryl Streep, Sandra Bullock, Sam Shepphard, and the currently ever-present and much beloved by me Benedict Cumberback), and many other well known character actors - but the mood you can set by panning the Oklahoma countryside - well you just can't do that in the theater. Worth seeing!
Thursday, I played bridge. Twice. Not well, but twice, once at the club in White Rock where I generally play with friend Robin (who is back in the desert in the sun, like the smart person she is), where I had a new partner (who will probably never play with me again, given my performance),.
And then, later in the evening, I was reunited with "the boys" for dinner at West End's idea of a pub, Cardero's...
and more bad (on my part, of course, theirs is always good) bridge. Bad or good, we do always have a good time, both at dinner and at bridge. It is the one thing I truly miss when I am in the desert, and look forward to seeing them when I come back. We talk about everything from economics to politics to John's training (he is always training for one athletic event or another), the theater, and, of course, about food. And then there is the bridge. It is one of those perfect meeting of the minds which, should it be disrupted by death or moves or other changes would be a loss in my life.
And, finally, to bring you up to date. today I met friends and former colleagues Joyce and Sheila for dim sum at our favourite place, The Fisherman's Terrace. (As careful followers will have noticed, we do try new places from time to time, but always end up back here.)
Having stopped at Joyce's for some more talk, and having picked up my New York Times and gone for a (not long enough but at least something) walk, I am back home and have almost brought you up to date.
I'll just say that the book list for the last few weeks was: Conrad Black's Flight of the Eagle (still - it will be quite some time before that is finished, I can tell you), 1491 (Christmas present from Peter which I devoured.) It has been out for a while, so I assume you have all read it, or, at least, know the premise: it looks at the "new" world as it was before Columbus arrived, coming to a wildly different conclusion than anyone might have imagined), and Bernhard Schlink's book called Guilt about the Past. He wrote The Reader (on which the recent movie was based) and other fiction. This was non-fiction on the same theme, guilt and remembrance.
And that's all she wrote. Til next time.....
It was good to see old colleagues and catch up on the gossip, but the files were waiting! Didn't even go out to lunch (or dinner, for that matter), and stuck to my yogurt and fruit. A good start! By Friday afternoon, though, I was off again. Friend Arlene was celebrating a birthday (and no, I won't tell you which one, although she is not a blog follower and I could probably get away with it!). My new Nexus border pass had, thankfully, arrived in my absence, and the rain cleared in time for me to have an easy drive down to Seattle. I started the weekend with friend Mariah (who, as you no doubt recall) also lives down there; we went to dinner at our favourite Chinese dive (whose name I can never remember, if I ever knew it).
The next morning, I was off to Arlene's, who has a lovely house on Queen Ann hill (is that right? I should know that.....), where she had prepared her usual, simply elegant, meal.
As you can tell from the quality of the light, the weather was, for a change, clear. Crisp, but clear.
We had planned a walk around Green Lake. One of the (gratefully, few) legacies of my several bouts of pneumonia is that I have difficulty breathing in the cold. I was game to try, though, and it was glorious, and even a brisk enough walk that I didn't want to interrupt the flow to take pictures. For those of you who haven't been to Seattle, or at least not recently, it is a glorious urban park, and a lovely walk.
That was it, though; we gave up on the outdoors, and wandered over (by car, I might add, with the usual Seattle difficulty in parking) to a lovely little neighborhood movie theater, which looked like a converted townhouse, and saw the newest Coen brothers movie, Saving Llewelyn Davies. All the critics have been raving about it, I know, but I guess I am too stupid; I just plain didn't understand what they were getting at. Was it a great portrayal of New York life in the 50's? Sure. But I got that about 5 minutes in. The acting was good, especially the lead (name?) who both sung and acted the role as if he were born to it. Nonetheless, iIf the film had lasted 5 minutes longer, I would have run screaming from the theater.
That excruciating piece of business was followed, however, by a lovely dinner at a place called Dahlia's, one of Tom Douglas's several restaurants. It has apparently been around for a while (although recently moved), but neither Arlene nor I had been there and it seemed like a good place for a celebratory dinner (that pesky birthday, remember...)
Highly recommended, on all counts. The food was, as was to be expected, lovely, but the service was beyond the expected. I turned up my nose at the mashed potatoes with my steak (silly me - I thought "buttered potatoes" meant buttered potatoes) I didn't have to say a thing - the turned up nose was apparently enough - a substitution was made cheerfully, with no cost and almost no wait. As far as the atmosphere, it was, as you can probably tell by the picture, my favourite kind of restaurant, the adult kind, with no children or cell phones in sight, plenty of room between the tables and no noise. And best of all, Arlene's choice of coconut cream pie, came with one candle but (thankfully) no singing!
After a good night's sleep (walking will do that for you, among other things not mentionable in a G-rated blog) will do that for you, we were ready for more girl-talk, and, of course, more food, this time a very trendy noodle house called Dim Tai Fung, in University Village. So trendy, in fact, that by the time we arrived at 11 A.M., there was an hour wait. We lucked out with a table in the bar, and lucked out still further with a great waiter, and a lot less fuss and feathers than we would have had in the (huge) main dining room, which was full of large groups and, well, imagine, children!
The food was great, quite delicate flavours and textures, again, highly recommended.
Followed by a (admittedly shorter than the previous day's) walk, this time around the open air mall. which is enough of a dying breed for me to consider it a cultural expedition.
...followed by a blessedly uneventful drive home (the drive, for those of you not from these parts, can be from 2 1/4 hours to 4 hours depending on the traffic and the border).
And Monday was back to work. Although I started out with the best of intentions (not about working, I really don't have problems sticking to that. They give me files with deadlines, I do them.), but about the going out to eat part.
By Tuesday, I was heading out to lunch with colleague Susan (who doesn't much like to have her picture taken). Wednesday, I went out to eat with colleague Andrew (who is now sharing an office with me, as he has retired and gone on contract, like me)....
and former colleague Eric....
...who always makes me laugh! The restaurant was Two Chefs and a Table, a neighborhood dive which has mad previous appearances on these pages. (Aside from the fact that I do seem to return to restaurants I like, the industrial parks which populate the neighborhood where I work do not offer a lot of choices), where their signature dishes are tater tots fried in duck fat and mac and cheese!
A good rainy evening activity is, of course, the movies, and as it is Oscar season, there seem to be some good, adult movies around. There is a multiplex just five minutes from my office and on the way home, so a 4 o-clock movie is a perfect pick-me-up. I started off with American Hustle on Tuesday, The Wolf of Wall Street on Wednesday, and, on Saturday afternoon (and yes, I was working on Saturday), the newest arrival, August: Sage County.
Briefly reviewed, in order. American Hustle, apparently loosely based on America's Abscam scandal in the 70's, was fun, although really, I'm not sure I would find it Oscar worthy, except maybe for one or two of the performances. The Wolf of Wall Street was Bonfire of the Vanities on steroids. It was sort of interesting to see DiCaprio going from tycoon Gatsby to Tycoon Wolfsohn. However, I don't know whether it was all the sex, drugs and profanity, or maybe because it didn't seem like all that much of a stretch to me, having been way too close to Wall Street during my years working at the bank(s). It just made me really uncomfortable. And (those of you who know me well enough know this is true), while I do not usually see anti-Semites under every bed, there were altogether too many Jews in this movie behaving badly to be truly enjoyable. I was glad to have seen both movies, but to say I enjoyed them would be putting too fine a point on it.
August: Sage County was the best of the lot. I had seen the play (written, I believe, by Tracy Lett - ask me why I remember that?) twice, once in Ashland, Oregon and once here in Vancouver. It was wonderful in the theater, and actually just as wonderful in the movies. Not only were the actors fabulous - Meryl Streep, Sandra Bullock, Sam Shepphard, and the currently ever-present and much beloved by me Benedict Cumberback), and many other well known character actors - but the mood you can set by panning the Oklahoma countryside - well you just can't do that in the theater. Worth seeing!
Thursday, I played bridge. Twice. Not well, but twice, once at the club in White Rock where I generally play with friend Robin (who is back in the desert in the sun, like the smart person she is), where I had a new partner (who will probably never play with me again, given my performance),.
And then, later in the evening, I was reunited with "the boys" for dinner at West End's idea of a pub, Cardero's...
and more bad (on my part, of course, theirs is always good) bridge. Bad or good, we do always have a good time, both at dinner and at bridge. It is the one thing I truly miss when I am in the desert, and look forward to seeing them when I come back. We talk about everything from economics to politics to John's training (he is always training for one athletic event or another), the theater, and, of course, about food. And then there is the bridge. It is one of those perfect meeting of the minds which, should it be disrupted by death or moves or other changes would be a loss in my life.
And, finally, to bring you up to date. today I met friends and former colleagues Joyce and Sheila for dim sum at our favourite place, The Fisherman's Terrace. (As careful followers will have noticed, we do try new places from time to time, but always end up back here.)
Having stopped at Joyce's for some more talk, and having picked up my New York Times and gone for a (not long enough but at least something) walk, I am back home and have almost brought you up to date.
I'll just say that the book list for the last few weeks was: Conrad Black's Flight of the Eagle (still - it will be quite some time before that is finished, I can tell you), 1491 (Christmas present from Peter which I devoured.) It has been out for a while, so I assume you have all read it, or, at least, know the premise: it looks at the "new" world as it was before Columbus arrived, coming to a wildly different conclusion than anyone might have imagined), and Bernhard Schlink's book called Guilt about the Past. He wrote The Reader (on which the recent movie was based) and other fiction. This was non-fiction on the same theme, guilt and remembrance.
And that's all she wrote. Til next time.....
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