Musings

Vancouver serves up it's best...

Lifestyle & Culture | November 2, 2008

Yes, I write a lot of food and drink related articles, and despite this blog's title I'm for once not talking about food. No, this time I'm talking about what Vancouver really serves up best, and that's rain. Yes folks, the rain has started and we must now resign ourselves to about 5 months of this tiresome and grey weather. So, riding my bike to work will be a lot less frequent, and yoga will reign as the exercise of choice over the dreary winter months.

I guess I shouldn't complain too much about the rain, because in a place like Vancouver where there's rain, there's snow (or at least snow on the nearby hills). So, I will have to endure 1.5 more months of idle raininess before I can hit the slopes at either Whistler, Grouse, Cypress or Seymour. I'm actually really looking forward to hitting Blackcomb Mountain. So far I've only boarded Blackcomb once, and I had an absolute blast. I found it's terrain much more suited to my riding style, so when the freshies come, so will Bay.

Unfortunately, this bleak, rainy, hellish weather also means that a lot of my other weekend activities (which usually involve strolling somewhere in the sun) have also come to a halt. I've found myself cooking my own brunch at home (god forbid) and spending the rest of the day sitting on my fat arse complaining about being bored, then eating something, reading a bit, sitting on my far arse and complaining some more, then going to bed. What a life I lead! I think I need some inside hobbies, and I do have some (Photoshopping and Lightrooming) but the weather and my lack of enthusiasm for going outside have meant that I haven't taken any photos worth a damn in ages. Catch 22.

Maybe I should pull out the old sewing machine and whip something up, then I could wear it around the house and make my complaining sessions a little more interesting... Or, I could repair my black work pants that I haven't worn for a year because they have a rip in the side. There are lots of things to do, and I think I need to start taking some of my own advice - what to do on a rainy weekend in Vancouver???

Lucky for me, I have a party to go to every Saturday night for the next four weeks, so I won't feel so bad for sitting round the house all day!

Okanagan Weekend DONE

Lifestyle & Culture | September 4, 2008

So, my weekend in the Okanagan was amazing. The weather was gorgeous (apart from getting rained on during brunch on the first day) the wines were delectable and the food was pretty well up to par. I think the gang and I set some sort of record on Saturday, fitting in 8 wineries in 4.5 hours. That's going to make Guiness right?

Unfortunately the lowlight of the weekend (as opposed to the highlight) was a 7-hour trip to Kelowna on Friday night. That's right folks, we left Vancouver at 6pm and didn't get to Kelowna until 1am (we should have been there around 10pm). There was flooding on the highway (unbeknownst to us) and we were pretty much at a standstill until the toll gate (which is just over an hour from Kelowna).

Luckily the guys that rented the car had chosen creature comforts over a roomy interior and while we were left with a smaller car it did have leather seats (most important) and a DVD player. Ever since I'd seen those things in cars back in 2004 I'd thought the concept was abhorrent - subduing children with a movie during a car trip just didn't seem right. They should be fighting and screaming and asking if you're there yet! However, I quickly changed my tune as the traffic ground to a halt and we were left with no choice but to crack out Dirty Dancing and relax in the relative comfort of the car (piled with pillows, sleeping bags and mattresses - hey at least I had something to rest my head on!)

After two intense days of wine tasting we headed home completely exhausted with 18 bottles of wine and a $500 credit card bill. I am hoping to post some reviews and articles of my wine tasting extravaganza soon, so stay tuned!

Okanagan Weekend

Lifestyle & Culture | August 29, 2008

Wine... yes, it's a relationship that spans many years, a love hate relationship (i.e. I love it more than life itself, but hate the fact that I'm probably officially classed as an alcoholic). Either way, this weekend I'm going to allow myself to revel in my love with wine and taste up a storm all over British Columbia's famous Okanagan Valley.

Two years ago, as a relative newcomer to Vancouver, I was amazed and delighted to discover the great variety of delicious local wine available, and since my first $8 tipple (I was poor at the time okay?) I've developed quite a passion for the odd BC bottle. Three trips to the Okanagan later and I'm becoming quite the "expert" on the area's best. Not that I claim to know anything much about wine, but I do know which ones I like and what I'd recommend to a friend if they asked my advice.

So, this weekend I'm heading back again and I can't wait. We're going to tackle the Naramata Bench region the first day, and I'm not sure where we'll head the next, but I can see my credit card getting a good old-fashioned workout that's for sure! Combine this with the fact that one of the friends we're traveling with is a gourmet French chef and you've just created my idea of heaven :)

I'll update everyone next week with my thorough and completely accurate tasting notes (???) as well as a bunch of hopefully awesome pictures.

Photography Addiction

Photography | August 28, 2008

I started getting into photography at high school. I purchased a second-hand 35mm SLR and took black and white photos which were developed (by me!) in the school's darkroom. It was loads of fun and seeing the images come to life in front of your eyes was truly something special. It was easy to see why people all over the world were addicted and obsessed with the art.

After high school the hobby died a little for me, and when an uncle purchased me a digital camera for my 21st birthday I was a little confused. What was the point of this camera? How was I going to print off my pictures and what happened when the SD card was full and I needed to put the pictures somewhere? My computer at the time was a behemoth and didn't seem the place to put my images at all. I ended up taking a few pictures here and there and getting friends who had whizz-bang computers with CD burners to burn them onto CDs for me. High tech!

A few years later, once I'd purchased a laptop and started my travels over the world, I began to see the huge advantages of this wee digital camera. However, by this time it was a little outdated and produced only mediocre images (3 megapixels - I laugh in the face of 3 megapixels).

So, two years ago, remembering my passion of SLR photography, I purchased a Nikon D50. This camera changed my world (for at least a month) and I couldn't believe the possibilities it presented to me in terms of image quality and technical options within the camera. Sadly, my passion for the fancy new trinket burned out after a couple of months playing and I let it fall by the wayside, often deeming it too bulky to bother hauling with me on outings.

On a recent trip to Montreal I was lucky enough to get to know the friend of a friend a little better. This friend of a friend also happened to be an amazing photographer and seeing her images sparked me off once more. I picked up my camera and started playing, I took the time to learn how to use all those dials and settings, and all of a sudden my images went from nothing special to something that maybe warranted a second look (if only a small one).

Since then the interest has blossomed into a full-blown addiction. I have since purchased two additional lenses, a new camera backpack (so I can take my laptop with me traveling as well as all my lenses and gear) and I'm loving it. Now the only problem seems to be that the more I read, the more photography equipment I want. I read an article on ultra-wide lenses and suddenly none of mine seem wide enough. I see a new Nikon body is released and I think maybe I need that one instead of mine (it is two years old now after all). I realise my sensor isn't a full-frame sensor and start thinking maybe I really need that too...!!!

Then, a reality check - I must master photography before I can purchase more equipment. After all, it's the vision and talent that makes the image great, not the gear. Gear can only do so much.

So, I continue to click away, and hopefully before too long I'll have something to write home about!

Worldwide Photowalk

Photography | August 23, 2008

Today I spent two lovely hours walking through Vancouver's Gastown (verging on Cracktown) for the world's first worldwide photowalk. The idea behind the walk is that someone in the city guides a bunch of photographers (amateur and pro) on a walk and they all snap their hearts away. There were more than a hundred cities participating in the walk, with each walk having 50 participants (at most).

I had a great time trying to look through the lens at my current home city with fresh eyes, snapping at everything I thought might make an interesting picture, and remembering that even everyday things could be part of an amazing image. In fact, I took so many photos and stopped so many times along the way that I ended up only walking about 500 metres, and had more than 200 photos on my camera at the end of it all.

The results of the walk are fairly satisfying, with a couple of good pics in there. As a bonus, when we stopped for lunch at the Steamworks Pub we got to talk to some of our fellow walkers and ended up making a couple of new friends who we're hopefully going to do a couple of mini photowalks with in the future (mini in size, not time or distance).

I would thoroughly recommend this type of activity to anyone with even a tinkle of photography in their eye because it's not only a great way to meet people, it's so cool to share your pictures afterwards and see how everyone else looked at the same streets you walked that very day.