Recent Shenanigans

So I've had a somewhat hectic week of events, including a packed out weekend where I decided to squeeze in as much as humanely possible, I had lots of things I wanted to be doing, and not enough time to get it all seen to! In an effort to make more progress and to stop my woeful procrastination I am treating job hunting like a job. Monday to Friday 9 (ish) to 5 I am putting my efforts into finding a job and on the weekends and evenings I'm relaxing and doing the fun stuff.

Crazy good xylophone skills!

Make Music Vancouver!

So Friday evening rolled around and Ian was working late, and I had nothing planned. I heard that there was a free music event down in Gastown so I grabbed my bag and headed for the Skytrain. On route I came across a small community event where a group of young people were playing xylophones (very skillfully I might add!) so I actually spent a good portion of the evening standing on a patch of grass 2 blocks from home just marveling at them. I got a bit jealous. If my school had a band like that, I would have 100% joined. Eventually I tore myself away and hopped on the Skytrain down to the Waterfront and checked out the Make Music Vancouver event in Gastown. It was relatively early when I arrived, but packed! There were around 25 different locations across the event, and each one had 4-5 acts throughout the evening so there was a lot to be seeing, I slowly wandered up and down Water Street, picking out acts that appealed and listening for awhile. My personal favorites were the Vancouver Didgeridoo Players and a Samba band named Bloco Energia (who I am very tempted to contact and try and join!) Just wandering and soaking up the energy and atmosphere made for a great evening and hung around till around 10, and then headed off to meet Ian for a cheeky Subway!

Saturday was a packed day. I had planned on spending the morning exploring Kits, but a lay in somehow worked its way into my schedule, and we had a relaxed morning just chilling out. Ian headed off to meet a friend, but shortly after he left I got a noisy phone call from him to tell me that Robson street was all closed off and the Jazz festival was in full swing, full of people and music and to get my butt down there and check it out. I could hear it all in the background and excitedly grabbed my stuff and power walked there! I wandered through the venue and loved the atmosphere, but I only had a quick look round, I had plans! I then met up with the lovely lady I have mentioned before (Louise, you got another mention!) and we made our way to the Rio Tinto Alcan Dragon Boat Festival. There we watched a few races, dragon boats looking somewhat like canoes and come with a rich Chinese history, we enjoyed taking in the views, the racing and chatting away the afternoon.

Dragon Boats mid race and Science World.

Later that evening, Ian and I made our way to Chinatown, to check out the Chinese Market which is held in the evenings every weekend from May to September. It's a great little place, with food stalls on one side and shops selling clothes and other such things on the opposite side. To be fair we were only really interested in the food, so I'm not entirely what they were selling. We tried a few dishes, some of which were delicious, I had a sweet and sour one which was so moreish! And then we hung around and waited for the real reason we were there - an outdoor cinema! Around 9:30 we plonked ourselves in the middle of a car park (armed with pillows we'd brought from home for our comfort, I swear we were the only ones who did, it must have been crazily uncomfortable!)  and waited for the sun to go down. Steadily the sky darkened and the screen being projected onto the side a building emerged. And then the fun began! The film was Iron Monkey, not the best film in the world I must say but it was more about the experience, being outside and surrounded by people. It just has a great feel about it, and we'll definitely be returning for Enter the Dragon in a few weeks time!

Sunday was Jazz day. We wasted a few hours doing boring household type things like shopping and such (yawn!) and then finally we got to visit the Jazz Festival. After my brief wander round the day before I was really excited for it, so we had a walk around and took in a few sights, then plonked ourselves on the steps of Vancouver Art Gallery and spent a few hours listening to some great music.

 

Tuesday is ordinarily quiz night, but this week we switched to another, so we took the opportunity to visit the aforementioned Vancouver Art Gallery, as Tuesday nights between 5-9pm its entry by donation. (Ordinarily its $20 to get in!) It was quite a small space, with 2 main exhibitions, one on Flemish art work and another on Hotel architecture, we whizzed around it, there were a few pieces we liked but honestly most of it wasn't quite our cup of tea. The whole thing took us about an hour, and I'm pretty glad we didn't pay full price to be honest.

Yesterday was quiz night, and I'm not sure the quiz was quite as good as the Lamplighters, I think we might try somewhere different. Following the quiz Ian and I hunted out a pub on Granville Street. We've been after a more pub style establishment rather than the bar type places that make up the majority of drinking holes in Vancouver, we'd done some online research and with this place we struck gold. It has a cool vibe, its smallish and quaint, the staff were great, the drink selection was wide, it even had a pub kind of smell. In celebration we had a pint each and a bowl of poutine. Great way to end an evening! Its not even very far away from where we live, and now plan on going there for dinner soon, roll on pub times!