Home Hardware on Commercial Drive

I lived in East Vancouver roughly in the Commercial Drive area (officially the Grandview neighborhood) from 1993 to 2016. My first wife and I lived in two rentals and then bought a house there. My two children were born in that neighborhood and my son and his partner live there again. It is a great area, interesting and diverse but not unsafe. One of the fixtures of the neighborhood is the Home Hardware store just north of first avenue. They have everything (except lumber unfortunately) and the staff are extremely helpful and knowledgeable. I went there recently for a bunch of supplies for our home and my studio.

 

The Unblogged: Anthony Robinson Ashes Tour Summer 2025

My father wanted his ashes to be scattered next to my stepmother's which had been placed at the top of rock bluffs overlooking Babine Lake in Northern BC with a South facing view. They had had a rustic cabin on that Lake together. She had lived in that area and had the property before they married. Her son, my step brother, has the place now. Although we did not grow up together (he was grown up and had left home before I showed up on the scene with my Dad) we have a good relationship. He spends six months of the year up there, the rest in Canmore. 

There were scenarios planned where I would go up with Veronica and/or my kids possibly with their partners. There was talk of renting an RV. In the end, I just drove up in our car with Veronica and stayed at a rental home. We had hospitality from my step sister, Gloria, and her husband, William, in Price George one night on the way up. Veronica stayed the first few days and then I drove her back to Prince George so she could fly back to Vancouver for work. 

It was great to see the Lake again. I had spent many months there over the years growing up and then with my kids. I had injured my leg learning to play pickleball but John and his son, Dain, delivered the ashes to the right spot. 

The view from the cabin. I don't need the picture, I can just close my eyes to see that view. 

It turned into a road trip. I went from Babine back to the local town of Burns Lake on highway 16 on to Terrace to see my nephew and his family. I had lunch with a retired colleague in Houston on the way. Then a couple of days retracing my steps back to Prince George and on to Calgary to see old friends. 

The Unblogged: Peru Trip Spring 2025

My wife has committed to before and after school care for one set of the grandchildren several days a week. I take over the occasional day when she cannot do it. This means any long trips we do together happen when school is out of session. Our trip to Peru happened during Spring Break for the schools last year. It was a guided tour with the company, Exoticca, which I can recommend. We were picked up, and driven around everywhere, and accommodation was all set up for us. We had guides and most of them were quite entertaining. 

We started in Lima for a few days. The area we stayed in was much like Vancouver. The only noticeable difference was that many street intersections, even some major ones, did not have traffic lights. Like many places, local driving culture made it all work. We heard that other neighbourhoods had developing world conditions. We ate well (including ceviche with a pisco sour) and enjoyed walks in parks near our hotel.

With a guide, we saw some of the historical sights in the city.

Then we had some more time to explore on our own 

    

Yes, those are vultures in that ruined church. Then we were flown to Cuzco and bussed to a small hotel, a staging area for the trip to Machu Pichu. We were into the foothills of the Andes at that point. 

Machu Pichu was a highlight of course. The architecture and engineering to build it all at the top of a mountain was impressive. I also admired the whole idea that it was a self sustaining colony. 

They got the Aspergers citizen to fit the rocks together nicely

Then we were on a bus to the city of Cuzco. Along the way there was a research farm used by the Aztecs to figure out what crop varieties grew best at different altitudes. The scientist in me appreciated this.

Some interesting things along this route: small three wheeled cars with motorcycle engines and many varieties of corn. I ate a guinea pig. 

Cuzco was at an altitude where we began to notice it with lack of breath. 

Then it was back on the bus and on to Puno and Lake Titicaca. Here, I really noticed the altitude or I started getting sick with whatever bug I came home with. We ate quite good pizza at a tourist place and went on a boat tour of the Lake the next day. An early steamship (the Yavari) built in England was brought up piece by piece with mule train and assembled at the Lake. It had both military and transport duty. 

We visited two indigenous groups: one living on reed islands and the other, said to be direct descendants of the Aztecs, were on a solid Island. 

 

Two long days later and flights back to Lima and then Vancouver brought us home.  

  

  

The Ublogged: Spring 2021 Trip to Long Beach

The Long Beach I will always talk about is on the West Coast of Vancouver Island, now part of Pacific Rim National Park. I first went there in the early 1970s with my mother and stepfather. We stayed at Wickaninnish Inn, the version at that time which was right on the beach. It is now the headquarters of the park. I went with an early girlfriend, later camped there with friends and then my first wife, and we took our kids there a number of years when they were young. It is a place with a lot of memories for me, and always impressive scenery. 

This trip was a short one for my current wife's birthday in February. The idea was to experience the winter storms from the comfort of our fancy resort (Pacific Sands, I recommend it). As you can see, the weather was unexpectedly quite pleasant which was hard to complain about. I hope to go back soon! 

The Unblogged: Honeymoon trip Fall 2020

Few people read this blog. For me, it is a convenient way to keep a diary/photo album and I find it helps centre my thoughts. Although I enjoy it, there are times when it does not come easily and events that are important to me do not get recorded. Over the next few weeks, I plan to fill in some of those gaps. Luckily I have all my pictures from the last 20 years available on iCloud Photos. 

I got married in the Summer of 2020. That event did get a blog post, you can go back and see the details if you are interested. Remember this was during the COVID epidemic. I was acting Head of Department at that time and so was not teaching and my wife was not back at work yet (she is a dental hygienist, retiring soon now) . We were able to get away that Fall to go on a short Honeymoon. We decided to visit Niagara Falls and Toronto. Because of the pandemic, there were few crowds and accommodation costs were low. We rented a car in Toronto and the first stop was the Falls.

We had a great view of the Falls from our hotel room, a suite with a fireplace. The revolving restaurant in Niagara was open and I love these: food and a changing view!

Then it was back to Toronto. On the way, we visited a drive through animal reserve with an aggressive ostrich. The encounter was captured on video.

The CN tower revolving restaurant was not open unfortunately but I think we went up to the viewing platform (I have been before and since). Toronto Islands made an enjoyable park experience. 

Lots of interesting architecture in the city. 

The last few days we were there the city put some lockdown measures into effect. Restaurants were closed except for patios and luckily the weather was great those days.

 

The last day was spent at a beach park with some iconic fast food. 

We loaded up with Bulgarian food for the trip home. Since then, we found that they will deliver to Vancouver. 

Barcelona trip

I am just back from a Barcelona work trip. I went to work with Tim Myers on models of column filtration, used to clean drinking water and other applications. Tim is a strong Applied Mathematician, with many successful Industry projects. He's fun to work with, and it was fun to be in Barcelona in the sun while it was raining here in Vancouver. Also, it's persimmon season there now. Spanish persimmons are the world's most perfect fruit, and they do not  travel well. 

I also do not travel well these days, will not make those long trips so often in the future. The project was a good one, and working with Tim is quite enjoyable. 

I stayed in a studio residence room which had a nice courtyard 

But it was not quite as nice as where I usually stayed which has this view:

When not working I found a couple of ways to stay out of trouble:

That is a very nice gin, by the way (Nordes), quite an unusual set of botanicals. I brought a bottle home to share with the local gin crew if they don't wait too long to come over.