Ahhh You Can Almost Feel The Serenity...

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Elizabeth's Work is Just Over my Shoulder!

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Ok Andrea took this and I'm pretty sure she was already drunk!

Point and Shoot

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The great Peter Milne taught me the virtue of the random point and shoot photo so blame him for this! He's a great photographer and I've just taken his name in vain...

Greetings Friends...Once More We Rise!

Back from a cyber death too terrible to describe (OK if I must...) we return to tales of drunken observations and sparkling anecdotes...if none of these things come to pass then my apologies! Tardiness in updating the blog has been due in no small measure to a post-Ray'N'Tina sabbatical as the two of us have tended towards home-bound repose rather than mighty adventures. In short, we just haven't done anything too fun in the last couple of weeks and I'd thought I'd spare you the tyranny of recounting my obsessive fixation with reorganizing my CD collection by order of ever more obscure genres. My latest rage is cowboy songs (after another encounter with the man who only eats what he's caught - he likes cowboy songs too!).

Anyway you catch the drift; hours spent pondering the proper relationship between country music and Chicago era post-rock in the grand scheme of CD shelfology may not inspire too many return visits to the Canada love-in. And yet, we did break the fun hoodoo on Friday night with our good friend Elizabeth's gala gallery opening. Vancouver really can turn on a Melbourne style scarves and beards, cardigans and high-heels art opening knees up when it wants to and we were typically enthusiastic about joining in (well for as much fun as one can have whilst seething about the $4 beers...call yourself communists gees!). Elizabeth's work was nonetheless fantastic though in my usual fashion I ended up taking photographs of the back of my own head (don't ask) rather than of the work itself. So there now you all know the reason why Andrea very rarely lets the digital camera out of her handbag...in fact I still marvel at the sheer wonder of digital cameras having so little exposure to them so to speak...truly wonderful little inventions!

That said I am responsible for the wonderful photos of the blooms outside our bedroom window even if they are a little too reminiscent of my mid 90s obsession with nature photography. Those of you who were there will no doubt recall my attempt to capture every shade of green known to God's green earth. Hey it was the 1990s - hippy photography was practically a political statement. Come to think of it, it may well continue to stand such scrutiny given today's news that Howard is now officially leader for life - at least if today's newspoll is to be believed. Labor is starting to feel a lot like the Australian cricket team in the 1980s - in love with the struggle and with the memory of past heroics yet forever doomed to inglorious defeat when things get serious. Come to think of it such analogies do a serious disservice to Allan Border - comparing him to Beasley flatters neither. Perhaps I'll reconsider my long held view that Australian cricket in the 1980s provides a neat conceptual template for understanding all the travails of modern politics. Border was brilliant and nowhere near as crap as Beasley! OK I'll sleep on it.

Otherwise Vancouver continues to treat us to ever more alluring distractions - I think we are each starting to love this place - nearly enough to change the name of my blog but that may be a little premature with the return of the rains. Work is going super though I am starting to lose my mind with a piece of writing I am working on - never let it be said that contemporary social theory doesn't draw out the cruelest of punishments...perhaps a story for another day!

Love!

What a Doofus!

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Ready to Go!

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For Ray and Tina - Safe Travels

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Just Down the Road

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The Perfect Destination

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This One's For Troy and Charlotte

Hey There Bike Buddies,

With Vancouver enjoying an early taste of spring - six days of clear skies and brilliant sunshine - with even the daffodils deciding that it's high time to get up and out, Andrea and I roused the bikes from their winter hibernation and hit the Stanley Park trails. As you'll see with the wonderful photos, it was a perfect day for a ride! Andrea and I took the forest path through the park slowly climbing all the way through conifer forest to Prospect Point high above the Lion's Gate bridge over to North Vancouver. You'll especially appreciate the photos Ray and Tina with me larking about in the famous lightning tree! The views from Prospect Point were breath-taking today with clear skies and uninterrupted views of Grouse Mountain and Mt Seymour behind it.

We then turned back from the point and rode our bikes along one of the quieter trails to Third Beach and then along the sea-wall all the way back into town to the Burrard Street bridge. We then crossed over into Vanier park for our picninc lunch among kite-fliers and dog walkers and little kids out enjoying the late winter sun. Just delightful though more that a little cold. After our lunch we decided that maybe it was still too cold to loiter so we jumped back on our bikes and headed home. A fantastic ride - really one of the best. Reminds me a lot of the Noosa Heads national park - so Troy you can probably imagine what that must be like to ride through.

Greetings also to Ray and Tina - thanks once again for such a magical two weeks - the trip to Whistler was a real highlight! I hope the jet lag isn't too bad and that work is treating you just fine.

Now vege hot-dogs await - the perfect way to end a fucking ace day!

...this really sums up my day right about now and I love these little furry creatures too. So I'm just sitting here having lunch playing on the internet and I came across this banner...perfect expression of my happy days mood! Go and try it comrades get up clap your hands shout out and do a little furry person dance! Guaranteed to get you going. OK back to work.

More Good News!

As I was composing my last post I received an email from the Dean's office at the University of British Columbia confirming my clinical appointment!! Now wait for it, I am now a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Health and Medicine, UBC. Sounds grand doesn't it!! Don't worry I think I rank around the level of all round dog's body and tea maker at present so I won't get too far ahead of myself. But you know I prepare a wicked brew so I'm prepared to pay my dues. What a great day and the sun is shining as well!

Over the Hills and Far Away...

Hello All!

The attached photos are from our most recent weekend adventures - this time up to the peak of Mt Whistler in the beautiful Garibaldi National park. Nothing like visitors to stir up the motivation for good times and adventuring! All four of us jumped on the Greyhound bus early (too early) on Sunday morning with the blessing of clear skies and brilliant sunshine all the way up the Squamish Valley on the Sea to Sky highway.

Surely this is the most beautiful, the most scenic highway in all the world as the road curls around the various mountain ridges and passes through some of the highest and most rugged peaks in North America. Unfortunately the bus ride didn't make for too many photo opportunities so you will have to take my word about the breath-taking views of the Howe Sound and Horse-Shoe Bay, Mt Squamish and the Green Lake. Truly amazing.

We were also treated to the sight of frozen lakes, and I mean plural. Once we entered into the Garibaldi National park we passed dozens of frozen ponds and lakes and streams. I've never seen frozen lakes before so this was a real treat. There is something serene about a body of water of such size frozen over with logs and other debris trapped in the ice until Spring. Again a real highlight!

Once we arrived in Whistler village we wandered around gauping with all the other tourists until we arrived at the gondolas. In a spur of the moment decision that struck all of us like a flash of genius we decided to take the sight-seeing gondola all the way to the peak of the mountain. Well this was something else comrades! The peak rise to over 6000 feet (apparently a baby by local standards but still like trekking to the top of the world for we poor mountain deprived Australians). The gondola ride took about 20 mins to rise to the top of the peak as we slowly swung over conifer forests and cliff faces up the mountain. Spotting the most dare-devil snow boarders was also a popular treat though watching seven year olds cane down the mountain side was humbling for all of us. Some of these little ones looked as if they could slalom before they could walk such was their lithesome confidence.

A wonderful though exhausting day! The scenery was breath-taking and company magnificent. Happy days! I hope all is well!

on the gondola

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tina and cam

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whistling tree tops

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whistler on a good day

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