happylife

Walking around

Despite of the bad weather forecast, we had sunshine after a long break today. Unfortunately, it was almost 2:00 PM when I found this thing because I had been, uh, in the bed. After finishing the very late breakfast, I left my room to enjoy walking. They seemed to have a parade in Downtown, but it was almost finished when I arrived there. I walked over Granville Bridge, turned to the left on Broadway for Cambie Bridge. I drive this way almost every day, but it was the first experience for me to walk along. It was enjoyable because the view of drivers and pedestrians is really different. I took some pictures on the way, and this is today's best shot. The head of False Creek is now under development preparing for the coming Olympic Game in 2010. Olympic village is reportedly going to be built around this area. I feel this city is changing day by day.

Rain, rain and rain

Vancouver is still in a consisting rain. "Boil water advisory" was announced three days ago and it is still in effect in my living area. I had to drive around the city seeking for drinking water. I barely managed to purchase it at the fourth supermarket. I should say I was lucky because a bottle of drinking water was sold out in most supermarket around Grater Vancouver. If it were in Japan, in such situation, people would be in a panic to make a long line in front of a supermarket. I think Canadian are way calmer. I'm saving water in this messy kitchen; collect the water drops from BRITA in any containers I have, and use it to rinse rice. Fortunately, the tapping water in my room seems clearer than yesterday, but the weather forecast predicts another heavy rain tomorrow. What a depressing weather!

Good taste

I'm very happy because I found a very good Japanese bakery in Kitsilano. It was a really small store but greater than any other bakeries I know in Vancouver. I visited there for the first time and bought two popular menu items; a melon bun and a red bean bun. Both of them are rather small and a little bit expensive, but tasted so good that tears happened to came to my eyes. It was exactly the Japanese taste which I had been dying for since I left Japan at the beginning of this year. To tell the truth, I found a great Japanese style cake shop in Downtown a few days ago, and I have known for years where to buy the Japanese short grain rice and where to enjoy real Japanese sushi and tempura. Now I can get every Japanese taste I need in here. Plus, I can also enjoy Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, India, Greek, Italian and of course the North American foods. Sure it is difficult to find a good restaurant, but it is a great pleasure for me.

Water crisis

A glass of water in the morning is my everyday habit. It usually works well as an eye-opener, but it worked too much this morning. We had a heavy storm yesterday in Vancouver. It was so heavy that we had quite a little damage here and there all around Greater Vancouver. Some schools were closed and some houses were flooded. Fortunately, I seemed to have no damage in my apartment room, but it was wrong. I was astonished to see the water from the tap. It was like sewage; too cloudy and brown to drink. The water purifier in my room worked very well as this picture shows; of course the right one is the original from the tap and the left one is purified, but the water was so polluted that my BRITA has been almost clogged. I can get only a drop of pure water every second now. Oh, I'm parched!

A deluge of information

It was almost one year ago when I started using SBM(Social BookMark) and RSS(Really Simple Syndication) reader. There is no doubt both of them are the key technology in the world of the Internet for the past five years. They are so convenient that I can't stop using them any more. To tell the truth, I knew about them more than three years ago, but I didn't leap at them at once for a reason; I was afraid of being flooded with too much information. The deluge of email filling my mail box every day was enough already, and I didn't want to accept any other information. I think this my feeling was correct. One year after starting using them by chance, my PC time has doubled and I am now drown in the flood of information. I really think that too much information ceases me and prevent my creativity. I have to reconsider my way of using these dangerous tools.

Indiscriminate deforestation

I was told the other day that I have a green thumb because I have raised a corn tree from a piece of popcorn. However, I don't think I deserve the name because I have weakened the basil which my friends gave me a few months ago. The reason is apparent; that is to say, I have picked too much leaves just to taste them. It was like an indiscriminate deforestation in my room. The basil forest has been getting thinner day by day and only several leaves and lots of stems without leaves are left. I have to stop picking the leaves until it recovers. Otherwise, the precious forest would die out someday soon.

Fantastic night view

After coming back from a party at my friend's room, I came into my room and found it was rather bright outside of the window. When I got out to the balcony, I came across this fantastic night view. Several lights of police cars were on Granville Bridge which was covered with fog, while Burrard Bridge was clear. The red and blue colors of police cars were combined into milky purple in the fog. The building silhouettes including the City Hall could be seen through the fog. I don't know what happened around the bridge, but I guess they were searching cars or making a film which are very common in Vancouver. I felt like driving through the bridge but didn't because it was too late and I was intoxicated a bit.

The taste of cake

My taste in foods have changed a bit since I started living in Vancouver. I didn't like a piece of fruit cake because it was too heavy and thick in taste for me, but it has become my favorite recently. I really think now that it goes well with a cup of coffee. I still love the Japanese style cake with light and elegant taste, but it is difficult to get them here. My range of taste seems to have been widened. Same things can be said about any other foods. I think I am happy because I can enjoy lots of taste. Now I can enjoy most kind of cake including the super heavy chocolate cake with bloodily red cherry sauce. The only thing I can't still enjoy is the Chinese salty whipping cream.

Household chore disaster

It was the day for household chores. I went to the laundry room soon after waking up around noon. There is one washer and one dryer in the room and we are sharing them by eight residents on the same floor in my apartment. The washer was being used by other resident when I went into the laundry for the first time. Though the dryer was vacant, it was useless for me waiting for the washer. I returned to my room and went back again after an hour. This time, both the washer and dryer were in use. As it takes about 30 minutes to wash and one hour to dry, I realized that I had to wait at least for more than two hours before I could finish my washing. I felt myself unlucky and got a little bit irritated because I had no clothes to wear out of the room. I had to give up the idea of going out before dark. I decided to start cooking in the kitchen, slicing a piece of cabbage, pouring an egg and flour in a bawl and stirring all of them. Meanwhile I turned on the stove and pan-fried a piece of bacon. Then it happened. The bawl dropped onto the floor upside-down with all the ingredients scattered here and there. I remembered that it was the last egg in my refrigerator. With this thing and that It was after sunset when I had breakfast!

Concentration in darkness

I've been very nocturnal for these past weeks, going to bed before dawn and getting up around noon. The summertime season has gone and the sun sets after 4:00 now in Vancouver. I have only three or four hours of daylight every day. I feel it's too short but we have to accept because it is the bill for the past long summer days. Anyways, darkness is not always bad because I think I can more concentrate on my work. To let me concentrate more and more effectively, I turn off all the room lights except for the small stand. This is a situation where I can't do anything but facing towards the PC. I love the feeling of fulfillment after working for hours in good concentration.