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A Vancouver Mental Health Holiday
Jan. 6th, 2013 07:59 pmRather than a daily recount, here's what happened GBUW format:
Good.
Spent lots of quality time with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
othelianna, who I now acknowledge as being cousin. This included assorted rides, movies and just plain old hanging out. Also managed to spend some good time with somejauntypolka and stephtopia.
An epic night at Storm Crow Tavern playing Cards Against Humanity with, well, everyone. Love that joint, even if they did take the crème brûlée off the menu (which is OK - it was never available in the first place).
Managed to give away most of the remaining cookies. Hopefully the allegedly gluten-free ones are appreciated. Only a few got into my mouth.
The Century Plaza hotel is quite nice, reasonably located, and has decent rooms and friendly, professional staff. As it's the hotel low-season, It was well priced too. Remember kids, in the high-season get a B&B, in the low season, get a hotel room. Unless you have a solid preference one way or the other.
Perky goth in Revelstoke was very pleasant to look at. So was snarky elf chick at Storm Crow. She made me announce Release the Kraken! to actually order Release the Kraken! (also it was delicious - Kraken dark spiced rum, ginger beer and lime)
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away and Rise of the Guardians were all good - sometimes surprisingly so (reviews to follow, probably tomorrow).
Bad.
Didn't spend nearly enough time withgarething, bognaustroglum, whiggy_one, chris9871 and several others, including others I haven't seen in years.
People don't live close enough to actual Vancouver, rather than the suburbs of the GVRD.
The only thing playing at the Rio this week was Django Unchained, and I had no appropriate movie buddies for the movie.
Ugly.
The drive. Oh god, the drive. Coming out was 12 hours. The road was decent, but as soon as the sun went down (at about the summit of the Coquihalla pass) visibility went to shit. I don't mind poor road conditions, or reduced visibility, but I *hate* combining them.
The drive back was worse because I did, in fact, combine bad road conditions with reduced visibility. I had rented a room in Revelstoke deliberately to keep myself from attempting to come back to Calgary in a single day. In the end it meant driving two hours longer than I really should have (I should have stopped in Salmon Arm - though all things considered, I'd have just had to drive that stretch the next day anyhow, and it got worse overnight).
Weird.
The Port Mann bridge claims to be a toll bridge, but I never paid a toll to cross it. Possibly they just confiscate a random car once a day.
My housekeeper stole the "Emergency Rum" bottle (which was empty - she clearly thought it should be recycled). Now I have to pick up a mickey of rum.
Finished Tears of the Sun. It was very good, but didn't really have much of a plot until the last quarter of the book (it really existed to bring the readers up to date on what was going on while the other characters were on their quest). However, that last quarter was good and really made me like all the Tiphane d'Ath scenes. Looking forward to the next book, which promises a return to a more linear plot.
Good.
Spent lots of quality time with
othelianna, who I now acknowledge as being cousin. This included assorted rides, movies and just plain old hanging out. Also managed to spend some good time with somejauntypolka and stephtopia.An epic night at Storm Crow Tavern playing Cards Against Humanity with, well, everyone. Love that joint, even if they did take the crème brûlée off the menu (which is OK - it was never available in the first place).
Managed to give away most of the remaining cookies. Hopefully the allegedly gluten-free ones are appreciated. Only a few got into my mouth.
The Century Plaza hotel is quite nice, reasonably located, and has decent rooms and friendly, professional staff. As it's the hotel low-season, It was well priced too. Remember kids, in the high-season get a B&B, in the low season, get a hotel room. Unless you have a solid preference one way or the other.
Perky goth in Revelstoke was very pleasant to look at. So was snarky elf chick at Storm Crow. She made me announce Release the Kraken! to actually order Release the Kraken! (also it was delicious - Kraken dark spiced rum, ginger beer and lime)
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away and Rise of the Guardians were all good - sometimes surprisingly so (reviews to follow, probably tomorrow).
Bad.
Didn't spend nearly enough time with
garething, bognaustroglum, whiggy_one, chris9871 and several others, including others I haven't seen in years.People don't live close enough to actual Vancouver, rather than the suburbs of the GVRD.
The only thing playing at the Rio this week was Django Unchained, and I had no appropriate movie buddies for the movie.
Ugly.
The drive. Oh god, the drive. Coming out was 12 hours. The road was decent, but as soon as the sun went down (at about the summit of the Coquihalla pass) visibility went to shit. I don't mind poor road conditions, or reduced visibility, but I *hate* combining them.
The drive back was worse because I did, in fact, combine bad road conditions with reduced visibility. I had rented a room in Revelstoke deliberately to keep myself from attempting to come back to Calgary in a single day. In the end it meant driving two hours longer than I really should have (I should have stopped in Salmon Arm - though all things considered, I'd have just had to drive that stretch the next day anyhow, and it got worse overnight).
Weird.
The Port Mann bridge claims to be a toll bridge, but I never paid a toll to cross it. Possibly they just confiscate a random car once a day.
My housekeeper stole the "Emergency Rum" bottle (which was empty - she clearly thought it should be recycled). Now I have to pick up a mickey of rum.
Finished Tears of the Sun. It was very good, but didn't really have much of a plot until the last quarter of the book (it really existed to bring the readers up to date on what was going on while the other characters were on their quest). However, that last quarter was good and really made me like all the Tiphane d'Ath scenes. Looking forward to the next book, which promises a return to a more linear plot.
