seth: 'the only trees they had left at Sears said 2ft on the box but they were 30cm if that. they were like $5 each.'
pete: 'you should've bought loads, we could have had a forest and pretended to be giants. Gulliver's christmas...' _ When you live in downtown Vancouver, you rarely have need for a car. The buses are great, and can take you pretty much anywhere you want to go without much waiting, including the mountains. The Skytrain is great too; fast, smooth, and doesn’t smell like old pee and cigarette butts like the London Underground. And if you don’t have any change, there aren’t many places around town you can’t get to by walking. Even in the rain or the fog the city is beautiful. We’ll see how I feel about the snow when it gets here.
I hadn’t really thought about driving until I had to do it in Seattle for a little while. The conditions were less than ideal for me; I hadn’t driven so much as a supermarket trolley in ten months, it was dark, it was raining, I was on the wrong side of the road and the blind spots in Doug’s car were horrendous, like having an open book strapped to the back of your head. After a while Ricky took over responsibility of getting us back over the border, and I happily fell asleep not at the wheel. After that Ricky and I took a few trips in the newly donated family car, here and there around the city. What with my cowardice and unstable nature in unfamiliar circumstances, I asked Ricky to drive me up to my first craft fair in North Van, lest I go astray and wind up in some suburban mountaineer’s driveway. Unfortunately he was not available to drive me the next day, and so I had to conquer my fear of looking like an idiot and drive myself. The first test was driving the car back home that night after dropping Ricky back at his place. All these dramatics are making this out to be a tale of overcoming disaster and adversity, where I face my fears and come out a stronger, better person… It’s not. I just hadn’t driven in a long time, I was on the wrong side of the road and the car I had borrowed gave the sneaky impression of being longer than it was. It turns out I was fine. There were very few people on the road at that time in the morning, the weather was clear and all I had to do was drive straight down Hastings into Burnaby without somehow de-railing others or myself. It turns out I’ve really missed driving. Coming down Main Street at 8am on a clear Sunday morning you can see the mountains beautifully through the vibrant red and gold blocks in Chinatown. And as shady as some parts of East Hastings can be, it’s incredibly interesting to drive along there and see the old buildings and little neighbourhoods. I managed to get there in one piece, and although I took one wrong turn on the way back, it took me to the top of a hill that sported a view of the entire city from the East side. It literally took my breath away. Not least of all because I wasn’t sure at which point I had gone uphill. This city is phenomenal, from whichever angle you look at it. But sometimes it’s just nice to get out of it for a while and see a little bit of something different. I seem to be doing that more often with Lauren as my tour guide, as we cruise most of her neighbourhood when we get together. Today’s adventure includes more cruising, and a trip to a records fair to go check out some Elvis vinyls… Having the car was great fun, and I have to admit I’ve been toying with the idea of getting one in the future. I don’t think it will happen anytime soon though. For one, it’s very liberating to not have a giant hole in my pocket where money used to be, what with insurance, petrol, parking etc. I’m also having way too much fun walking places right now, but we’ll see how that goes as the weather gets colder…. _as I've been cracking on with all these christmas crafts for the craft fairs I've got coming up, I kind of got into the christmas spirit a little, and in doing so stumbled upon sketchy santas, a hilarious website dedicated to the funniest father christmas photos you'll ever see. in most of the pictures the kids appear to be crying. I can't really remember any specific times when I went to visit father christmas, but I don't think I was the type of kid who would cry. looking at the photos on that site I feel worse for the santa than for the kid, trying to hold onto this wriggling, screaming snotbag as the camera captures the moment for life. but the funniest ones I came across were the zombie santas...no wonder the kids are crying! they look like demonic child catchers. christmas is fast approaching, you'd best be prepared for the undead when it come's creeping down your chimney... this is my everything shirt...pete brought it from work, along with a couple of less appealing bright pink shirts that didn't read as well. this shirt is so comfortable, i wear it every day around the house. it has become my 'work uniform' to do my crafting in. i think it's pretty cool, but only because i'm wearing it ironically. if i saw someone wear this in the gym, i would definitely judge them...
so recently i've been working really hard on getting some stock ready for the upcoming fairs that are fast approaching. christmas will sneak up on you, like it does every year, and so what better way to get prepared than to visit my online shop and stock up on beautiful handmade cards. at the moment my jewellery is being reserved for the live fairs but pretty soon there will be more of that up too, and available to buy online.
in the meantime also check out the cool prints that are available, you might find one perfect for a festive gift... the first fair is at St Stevens Church on November 19th at 9am, closely followed by the CWL Christmas Market on November 20th at 9am. if you find yourself in the neighbourhood and needing something to do, or you've seen these pictures and couldn't possibly live without these items, come on down! and if you miss these ones not to worry, there are plenty more on the way this season, check out our sister site sethmacbeth.com for more info and to see all the latest hand crafted items for sale. last night anna was good enough to humour us brits and hold a special november 5th bonfire, so that we could stick to our roots and our patriotic obligations. we had a delicious pot luck dinner by the fire side, with bonfire hot dogs and cold beer. until coming to vancouver, i never knew how tasty vegetables could be, no wonder there are so many vegetarians here. wisest of them all are the financatarians like my good friends kai and doug, who will only consume meat when it is economically beneficial. good idea... those are the gatherings i love the most. very relaxed, interesting people, good laughs. we spent a good half hour i'm sure on jokes alone, notably pirate themed and talking food. i'm sorry, said one melon to the other, but we cantaloupe... one of anna's own design... bad puns included, i had a really good time.
many thanks to anna and clare for hosting us all and cleaning up our mess, and to all the cool people we met for being so friendly. much respect also to anna's friend graham who came despite being hit by a car that day... |
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