• Watching District 9 – there’s something sad about seeing a movie by yourself, but since not everyone was blessed with the same 31 days off like I was, somethings you just have to go solo on.
• Karaoke – What’s better then belting out off tune lyrics to a song that only you know? Knowing that no matter how bad you are, there’s always someone worse.
• Biking on Seymour mountain trails – A bigger test of endurance than I initially thought, but it was great exercise. The lake at the end of the trail was the icing on the cake. A great view and a great place for lunch.
• House party -  There’s nothing more fun then having the comfort of being at home, but with friends, drinks and games.

More to come!

day 17 – carcasonne!

Never heard of it? Well me neither until I tried it at a friends house. It’s a board game with 2 goals: 1 -  gather points by completing medieval constructions such as castles, and 2 – screwing over other players by messing up their constructions. Sounds fun? Well it is! There’s something about randomly drawing pieces in hopes of making a proper castle that seems counter-productive; at least now we know how they made though leaky condos.

day 18 – tomatoe’d

As I was gifted with an awesome restaurant recommendation by a friend, so too shall I make a great recommendation to you! Take some time off and visit Tomatoes Fresh Food Cafe on Broadway and Baystreet. As the name suggests, the chefs have learned the secret to harnessing the secret power of tomatoes to make food delicious (and not just clean dust off your tabletop).

The decor is quite fashionably decorated by abstract and fun paintings of tomatoes. The food itself is organic and quite local friendly. It’s about as pricey as going to Earls but without the ego and much better for you. I recommend the Steak with a side of Root Beer float…mmmmMMmmmm. Enjoy it with your special someone, or like I did, reconnect with a friend you haven’t seen for a while. Nothing fills the soul better then good conversation over great food.

day 19 – N’prayer ft. the Altar Boyz

Of all the great things found on Granville island, one of the best must be their live shows. I got a chance to see the hyped Altar Boyz; a christian boy band set on repenting yours sins while breaking a beat so rad you’ll fall to your knees yell hallelujah!

It’s hard to describe the energy these guys bring, but it’s very fun to watch and a great time for everyone. It pokes fun at religion without being offensive; plus there’s some pretty awesome jokes that only your sunday mass’ers would understand. We got a chance to catch them during their second showing after popular demand brought them back to a sold out theater. Keep your eyes peeled for more fun shows like these playing on Granville Island.

day 20 – climbing is…MY DIGITS!!!

Despite my fear of heights and my unluckiness concerning seemingly fastened ropes, I asked a friend to take me wall climbing at Coquitlam’s Cliffhangers. You know, it doesn’t seem at all that hard with so many things to grab onto… that is until you realize that you’re only allowed to use one color set all the way up.

Everything seemed great though; I was making my way up those walls at a steady pace and even ventured to look down once in a while. I think it was around my 3rd or 4th time up when I realized someone replaced my forearm with a tight rope. Apparently when this happens, you’re supposed to slap it and shake your hands (guys – not what you think, there are children there!), but only prolonged what would soon come…my digits!!!

All the wall climbing (and ice hockey later that night) my poor hands very damaged. Good ol’ lefty was ok thanks to Tennis, but I could hardly hold a cup in my right. This made the next few days very hard indeed. Good thing it’s just a relaxing weekend of…alcohol and camping? Damnit!

day 21 – the wine tasting! (who brought the vodka watermelon?)

There’s nothing more fancy then fine wine, great appetizers and a monstrously sized mutant watermelon filled with arguable the worst tasting alcohol ever created.

First lets talk fancy – spinach & artichoke dip, blueberry crisp, cheese and bred, mango sorbet, rose wine and bubbly. All spell good times and great drinks at my friends wonderful wine tasting house party! What made it even better (and worse) was Dave, the good ol’ chap that he is, decided to knock it up another notch by bringing a 2-6 of vodka disguised as a watermelon for dessert.

Never in my life have I been so afraid of a slice of watermelon. It was truly Russian Roulette as some pieces were spared the full dose of vodka while other pieces tasted like Dave used alien technology to artificially replace every drop of water with 40 proof alcohol. Sophisticated? Definitely.

day 22-23 – river dancing at manning park

The misses and I took a nice couple of days out camping with friends at manning park. After the 2 hour drive there, we finally pitched tent and got to stretch our legs. Despite what some skeptics might say, my tent harnessing skills were fine! Anyways, it wasn’t long before we got board and decided to go explore. That’s where we found the river.

Armed with backpacks and flip flops, I figured what better way to connect with nature than to traverse this stream all the way up and back to our campsite. This is where I learned a painful lesson: rocks are slippery! Especially when wet! And especially when sitting in the middle of a river!

Of course I took a plunge into thigh high water, losing a flip-flop as well as a water bottle in the process. Nothing is more demoralizing then seeing your possessions wade downstream only slightly faster than you yourself and move. Nonetheless I raced after it (not really racing since there are sharp rocks everywhere). Luckily the flip-flop was saved by Katie, which left only that damned bottle. I chased it all the way down beyond where we entered. If it wasn’t for the fact that it got stuck on some rocks long enough for me to grab it, we’d probably never see that bottle again.\

Oh why was that bottle so important? It was one of only two bottles of water we brought from home, meaning it didn’t taste funny. Oh the things we do to bring civilization into the wilderness…

Anyways, that night there were very little clouds so the group decided to venture off to the lake for a midnight stroll and star watching. Once you get a chance to see the sky away from the lights and sounds of the city, you really understand why millions have written and dreamed about them. Spectacular.

Well, that concludes my ginormous update. Everyone, stay frosty.

-traveler

If this was war, and if war was fought with small pellets full of paint, I’d be one dead bird. But thankfully it isn’t, and instead of being six feet under, I was well above ground and doing awesome.

Day 16 is all about paintball. Invited by a buddy’s buddy’s workmate, 3 friends and I took it upon ourselves to prove our mettle in paint combat. We played on several fields including my favorite, the city map; this map featured countless tires, wrecked cars, oil drums and small buildings. It was also the grounds for my epic 6 man tally.

Our team started on the weak side; weak because our left flank was extremely vulnerable if left unattended (which it usually is). I took a squad mate and made it our responsibility to hold. From the starting marker we rushed out and bunkered in. It wasn’t long before my teammate succumbed to an oily, colourful death. Left alone, I found myself being fired upon from 3 directions; but still I held.

Looking at my hopper, I found I had only 3 shots left. Teammates from the sidelines were yelling at me to pick off someone coming in on the far left. With rental guns being what they are, the first 2 shots were to sight the aim. The last shot was right on the mark; at the same time the ref came along and graciously gave me a refill.

With my hopper full again, began to advance up the left side. Taking cover behind a tree, I found myself fending off fire from both left and right. Eventually taking down 2 from the left and and one on the right, my tally reached 4. It was time to take the offensive to the next level. After crawling past the wrecked car, I rushed out and caught the flank of 2 unsuspecting shooters. There my tally of 6 was complete.

The round, however, wasn’t over. I caught sight of another opponent. While trying to sneak up, he caught sight of me. We exchanged fire with no avail. I ducked into what was thought to be an empty cottage. Of course standing right there was the enemy who hit me in the back. What a glorious way to end it huh.

Anyways, the whole day left me extremely and crippled. War, what is is good for anyways…

Absolutely nothing,

-traveller

To prove how flawed this idea was, we didn’t even end up making a beef dish. Instead, I suggested a more healthy option of teriyaki salmon with baked potatoes and steamed vegetables. MMMMMMmmmmm. The healthy dish was quickly followed up by a round of binge drinking and socialbles. In case you’ve never heard of this game before, it’s quite similar to another game called King’s Cup. You take a deck of cards and take turns picking them up. A mini game is played for each card and the loser drinks. Want a gander at it? Here are some of the rules we used:

• A – drink 1
• 2 – give 2 drinks
• 3 – rhyme time – everyone takes turn rhyming a word the drawer says
• 4 – categories – everyone takes turn naming things in a category the drawer names
• 5 – story – drawer starts a story with one word. the next person repeats the entire story completely and adds another word. It keeps going until someone screws up the story.
• 6 – Thumb Master – the drawer keeps the card. At anytime during the game he can put his thumb on his forehead. Everyone else has to follow suit. The last person to do it has to drink. This person stays the thumb master until the next 6 is drawn.
• 7 – sevens – drawer starts with a number. everyone takes turns counting up but clapping on any number with a 7 in it, or is a multiple of seven (circa bingo was his name-o)
• 8 – Imitate – drawer does something immediately and the last person to imitate him/her drinks.
• 9 – waterfall – drawer starts drinking. Everyone starts drinking when the person on their right begins and can’t stop until the person on their right stops. The drawer can stop anytime.
• 10 – Socialbles – everyone drinks!
• J – Rule card – create a rule where if it is broken while people are playing the game, they have to drink (e.g. no names can be said!)
• Q – Games end – nothing happens until the last Queen is drawn; when that happens the drawer has to chug the rest of his drink.
• K – Village idiot – anytime someone loses a game and has to drink, you have to drink too.

Happy drinking!

- traveler

The four went through their set list in the order of the Beatles albums, pausing occasionally to change outfits to match the era, including the famous Sgt. Pepper’s neon band uniforms. Everything was quiet realistic, they all had the right accents and even looked like their respective Beatle! The music itself? Absolutely pitch perfect.

What really put the icing on the cake was the entire show was set on the premise of the Ed Sullivan show! As you know, the Ed Sullivan show was the Beatles first introduction into North America. The actor, who was apparently also in pulp fiction, was also spot on and a delightful diversion for when the fab four were changing. For those of you who also want to see the show, they’re coming back to the River Rock casino on Dec 19th.

So what is my favorite Beatles song? Well it has to be Hey Jude, which happened to be the last song they played for their encore. Lucky me!

-traveler

Bon from the previous post racked up 3 goals for the night, another good night for him. In the end the dark team won it with a score of about 16 – 12, or something (we play until the Zamboni comes). The night ended with a past-midnight stop at Wendy’s where Bon convinced me to try a Baconator. Good lord that was so much burger. Personally I don’t like processed cheese on anything so I wasn’t blown away, but it was still pretty good and ridiculously filling. The perfect way to completely negate all the exercise I just did. Hurrah!

-traveler

It airs on the Slice network (I’ve posted a link below). If you ever get a chance, hop on down and give it a shot. For the most part they do nice work; however I’ve been jumping around hair stylists ever since my regular up’d and left. Seems to be a common theme at the Chop Shop, too much drama maybe?

As for my hair cut today? Meh.

-traveler

http://www.slice.ca/Slice/Watch/Default.aspx?&maven_playerId=slicevideocenterdart&maven_referralParentPlaylistId=b8635b6c91425504b7c7c2345e00ccb97d6c46c1&maven_referralPlaylistId=5e48947290c2e5cfd1f655f7d7bac9b2fa404d88&maven_referralObject=1019687257&maven_referrer=staf

Obviously we turned tailed and got the hell out of there. Once we got down to the lake, we made  a couple of loops and went back up. All and all a great way to get some exercise and to enjoy the scenery. Not bad for a Tuesday afternoon.

-traveler

Something odd occured during the exam, I looked at my multiple choice sheet and noticed I wrote 10, counted them, 10 “a”s in a row. I’m pretty sure they were correct too. Professors should really watch out for stuff like that, it REALLY plays with the mind, making me second guess myself all the time. Great.

I just wanted to get it out of my memory. So…end of post.

-traveler

Until the day that the zombie apocalypse reaches us, my friends and I will have to settle for the board games, which are still tons of fun and not nearly as messy. The game we played was so cleverly titled “Zombies!!!”; the 3 exclamation marks tell you we’re not mess’n around. You take turns building the city around you while rolling dice to see how you fair against the hoards of zombies that inevitably roam the streets.

We decided to kick it up a notch by adding in our own player versus player feature. When the all important helicopter landing pad piece gets drawn, we decided that instead of those Rolls Royce Blackhawk copters coming in, it was gonna be a a puny civilian craft. Also, the pilot announced via speaker phone that there is only one space on the copter, and he don’t like squishing. Obviously distraught, our plastic men looked at each other and knew, there are more dangerous things than zombies…hah!

Being able to kill other players just made this game even more treacherous then it already was; awesome. Alongside this board games, my friends and I often frequent other zombie type board games such as Last Night on Earth and the expansion pack, The Hunger. I suggest you go out and give it a try. Long gone are the days that board games only consisted of monopoly or snakes and ladders. They are tons of fun. If you don’t want to shell out, then improvise! That’s what happened that fateful night we invented Zombie Risk!

While striving for global domination, an urgent and much more dangerous threat arrives…

-traveler