Settling into a sunset in Varanasi was the perfect antidote to the aches and pains of the 18-hour train ride I had just endured. The sun hung low in the sky. I was in a third story room, ancient palace windows in my shower stall, just holes in the white stone, peeked out and down the giant steps to the Ganges. Vultures circled over the mud flats and palms on the South bank. Such a contrast to the ancient palaces turned guest houses that crowded the North side where I stood.

I walked out on the terrace, lit a beedie and let the scents waft up from the water. Children gathered just below and played with the stray dogs, skipped stones along the river. Water buffalo and cows settled in for the night. The long-boats rocked and splashed against one another, moored on hemp ropes that ran up the sides of the stone steps and towards the city. A small crowd gathered, someone played a tabla, tap-a-tap, tap-a-tap. Sandalwood incense offerings burned at shrines and mixed with the fragrant muddy smell of the water, twisted with the sweet smoke of my beedie, then hung there in the humid evening air. I breathed it in, I watched the sky turn orange and red. Smoke billowed from ghats to the East, bright orange fires burning the dead. Songs and prayer, the wails of mourners in the distance. The oldest city in India opened her arms to me.

Labels: india, travel

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Summer is here...it's been so hot in Vancouver. Work is ridiculous with no air conditioning and black dress pants and a dress shirt...sweat sweat, and by the end of my shift I'm covered in a thick layer of sweat butter and grease. Good times.


Osteospermum Pink Spoon


Border Pink Dianthus


Tomato Flowers
My garden is doing amazing things. The constant warmth and sunshine have really helped my tomato plants out and they're growing so fast I notice every morning, when I go out on my deck and look around just to say "Holy CRAP!" It's like they're on steroids. No tomatoes yet, but all five of my plants are flowering, so they should be coming soon. My strawberries were having a rough time with all the rain and humidity we had earlier but they are finally blooming...so fruit is coming soon.


Lola in the car...


Lola on the beach


Lola passed out and we hid her with grass


How could you not love that face?
Amanda and I went to Whytecliff Park last week with her new puppy Lola. It was a hot summer day, and Lola's first day at the beach. We got her in the water a bit and played fetch. She was exhausted after a little while and passed out on my arm on the grass. She's a 'chick-magnet' though, let me tell you, girls in bikinis were coming from all over the beach to pet her. Good times.


having a rought time getting in the wetsuit...


Whytecliff Park
Yesterday, Amanda and I went back to Whytecliff for SCUBA. First time I've gone in 10 months. We picked up our gear headed up to West Van in the early afternoon. I was a bit freaked out because it was my first dive without an instructor, but everything went just fine. We were planning a dive no deeper than 50 feet, just to kind of get back in the water, look around and get comfortable with the equipment again. We suited up, made the hike down to the water and swam out on the right side of the bay for a dive along the wall. The visibility was terrible above about 15 feet, a thick layer of algae and crud. Below that though, the water was clear. We saw lots of fish, huge huge purple and orange and yellow starfish, and a bunch of crabs. I found a silver ring and brought it back with me. We didn't end up going any deeper than 35 feet during the dive, which was fine. It was sort of a practice dive. Next time, we'll swim out a bit further and dive deeper to see the sea anemone garden. I'm glad I got back in the water finally and hopefully I'll be doing a bunch of dives this summer with my new dive buddy.

Right after we surfaced for the swim back to shore, a seal popped up about 10 feet from Amanda and she screamed thinking "it was a bald man with no ears!"

Labels: SCUBA, summer

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I've been asked by my bar manager at work to compete in the regional finals for the Stella Artois Draughtmaster Championship this Sunday. 16 contestants will compete by pouring two pints of Stella Artois, a pint of Hoegaarden and a bottle of Leffe Blonde according to the 9-Step Stella Artois Pouring Ritual developed by brewmasters.



It's a pretty involved and complicated process, that's simple to understand, but takes quite a lot of skill to execute perfectly. The Stella Artois pouring part also involves a double pour. I'll open the tap, pour into a pint in my left hand and hold an empty glass upside down in my right hand, then as the first pint crowns, i'll switch the the second pint, behead the first pint, close the tap, remove the second pint and behead it. It's hard to explain in writing, and trust me, this is no easy task but I'm working on making it look that way.

Here's the 9-Step Stella Artois Pouring Ritual. (from canoe.ca)

(1) THE PURIFICATION - The glass must be washed, nay scrubbed, in cool sudsy water and then rinsed by gently plunging the glass, stem down, into a cool water bath. That's the purification. No warm glasses straight from the dishwasher.

(2) THE SACRIFICE - Then comes the sacrifice when the tap is opened to allow flow off of the first burst of foam.

(3) THE LIQUID ALCHEMY BEGINS - The glass is held at a 45-degree angle so the perfect balance of liquid to foam follows.

(4) THE HEAD. ALTHOUGH "CROWN" WOULD BE MORE APPROPRIATE - Then a foam head is created by straightening the glass. This step is important as the foam prevents the beer from coming in contact with the air, thus retaining the flavour.

(5) THE REMOVAL - The pourer must close the tap quickly [and remove the beer from under the spigot] to ensure no drops spoil the glass of beer.

(6) THE BEHEADING - This is the time for beheading the beer: While the head is flowing over the edge of the glass, it must be cut gently, yet swiftly, with a knife held at a 45-degree angle to the rim. This ensures the larger bubbles are eliminated. (Larger bubbles burst quickly and hasten the head's disappearance.)

(7) THE JUDGEMENT - The pourer must now stand in judgment of the beer: It must have a two-finger width head on it (about 3 cm.) to ensure the beer doesn't go stale quickly.

(8) THE CLEANSING - The pourer now rinses the bottom and sides of the beer glass by slowly immersing it in the cool-water rinse. This keeps the glass clean making it comfortable to hold.

(9) THE BESTOWAL - Finally it should be presented to the drinker on a coaster [with] a drip catcher.

Cheers to you, and for your patience, a refreshing award.

Labels: stella artois

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this song has been on repeat for two days...


the tokyo police club - citizens of tomorrow...

See the ruins of the old world below
That's what our ancestors left us.
Our robot masters will know
How to clean this mess up
And build a better world
For man and machine alike
For the boys and the girls
Who are slaves building spaceships at night
In the fluorescent light.
That's 2009.
(No we can't, No we won't, No we can't, No we won't)
On cold frosty Martian mornings
The chill on my breath is red
Redder than my mother's blood
When she turned to me and said
"This is not how we planned it
But we've gotten ahead of ourselves
Computers rule the planet
And the moon and mars as well
We lost the fight"
That's 2009.
I have a microchip
Implanted in my heart
So if I try to escape
The robots will blow me apart
And my limbs will go flying
And land before the ones that I love
Who would wail and would weep
But the robots would keep them at bay
While I shut my eyes
For the very last time.
Citizens of tomorrow be forewarned.

Labels: music

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it's been over a month since my last post. that's a long time. i blame it on facebook and work and a whole bunch of other stuff going on. it's been busy.

school is done. i've finished my last course. seems like it went by so fast. started in september and am done already. now, i've got an Advanced Specialty Certificate in Forensic Science Technology. i'm half a csi (i mean half because i don't have any experience), but i'm versed in fingerprinting, collecting and storing evidence, forensic photography, pathology, wounds and blunt force injury documentation, death investigation, forensic DNA typing, odontology and the law that stands behind it all.

my program ended with a mock trial held in the moot courtroom at the UBC Law Faculty. on the first day the class was split into crown prosecution and defence. we were given a booklet of crime scene photographs, interviews with people involved, a crime scene report and various other reports from specialists involved with evidence from the scene. from that we built a case and the defence mounted a defence. it came to trial last saturday and everything (well most things) unfolded just the way they would have in a real trial. we had a judge, a jury selected from friends and family, a court clerk, a sheriff and a bunch of lawyers and expert witnesses who were examined and cross examined to death.

i was part of the crown prosecution and we lost the case. the defence came up with an amazing story to explain away all the evidence we had. the jury returned a verdict of not guilty', but said they would've found the accused guilty if there was some DNA evidence. there was, but it was deemed inadmissable by the judge in an earlier 'voir dire' hearing as it was obtained on a breach of the accused's charter rights and freedoms. such is life.

so school is done. and now comes the ultimate question: what shall i do now? it was sort of anti-climactic, as i now feel that i have to start doing something. when i was in school, at least i could say..."well...i'm in school."

now i feel like i need to be doing something. so the job search begins...

Labels: school

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