a rainy Saturday in Van

It's winter, right? everywhere else in our great and vast nation, Canadians are dealing with the white stuff... snow, I mean.... except out here on the left coast. Here, the white stuff is wet; not frozen, just cold and grey. But, once it falls, it takes no time to shovel it off the driveways and plough it off the byways... it has a way of just running off somewhere and disappearing. great stuff, EH?





Saturday morning we met Jit. She is a quiet and smiling person, a mother - maybe a grandmother - who takes care of the breakfast nook at our overnight residence - a Days Inn near YVR. As we made our way down the row of breakfast essentials laid out on the sideboard - you know... cereal, juice from a dispenser, yogurt, bagels next to a toaster... there stood Jit at the end of the line poised over the waffle cooker - "Would you like a waffle, sir?" she smiled at me... just what the doctor ordered on this grey Van morning - made only better with a few slices of banana and a glass of OJ (from the dispenser, of course). As the ubiquitous LCD panel in the corner showing CTV Newsworld continuous coverage of last night's Egyptian 'revolution', as christened by our press, played a background hum, we finished our fuel stop - excellent waffle, Jit, thank you - and agreed we needed a higher octane supplement...







Why cross Bridgeport Road in the rain? to get to the (Starbucks on the) other side.

Two triple grande lattes and a small table by the window... we could dry out and watch the Skytrain on the Canada line pass by - still brightly decorated in 2010 Winter Olympics garb - a fine contrast for the grey-on-grey elevated concrete rail bed against the clouds. At the next table, S, and her adult daughter, P, were sharing their morning caffeine fix before heading out to Costco to shop. The inevitable weather opening ensued... then the "Oh, and where are you from?"... and the follow-through "What do you do here in Vancouver?". turned out that S works at YVR and P is employed by the people... they have lived in ON but never further east... we shared family stories, political perspectives, likes and dislikes (seems we shared like opinions on most of those, too) - what a great way to pass an hour and a half - over strong Saturday morning brew exchanging perspectives and viewpoints with two really interesting people who were strangers an hour and a half ago and with whom we exchanged e-mail addresses as we departed - them to do Costco and us to our Days Inn to await the arrival of the "sister units".







Oh, yes.... the feline presence... that's the Days Inn mascot - she came through the sliding glass doors 6 years ago and decided that mascotting was a good way to earn her room and board; only on the left coast....EH?


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Location:Richmond... east of YVR