Saturday, October 24, 2009

East side ramble on bike Oct 24, 2009

The sun is shining today and after the party for Tom last night and a few beers I needed to clear the cobwebs so I took off on the the bike for a little ride out the east side of the City.

I took the Seaside route to Adanac - out Adanac to Sunrise - down Sunrise to the waterfront and the Port side route and then skirted the waterfront and into Crab Park at Portside for some final photos.

The colors as you can see from the photos are still there.

I then picked up the Cardero bike route and then up Harwood and home - in all about 22km on the bike.










Still can't get the photo upload to work on Internet Explorer and my Firefox is acting up so I am using Google's Chrome browser to upload these images. It seems to upload faster than IE but as some people might suggest anything should work better than anything made by Microsoft.

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Busy afternoon for the sport junkie - coming up in a short time is the BC Lions vs Sask CFL football game - then the Canucks vs the Leafs in Hockey and also the Yankees and the Angels in baseball - then there is also College football and for the martial arts people a big UFC event on PPV.

Cheers

Dennis

Tom's 60th birthday party Oct 23, 2009

Last night I attended the 60th birthday party for one of my closest friends and former work mates Tom - while he and his partner Barb were away on a Panama Canal cruise and Florida vacation I was left with the task of organizing the event.

Prior to leaving we had agreed on Boston Pizza for the event and I booked it at their New Westminster location as they have a private room that can seat up to 40. While we had to pay a mandatory 15% tip for this service it gave us a fair amount of privacy.

Trying to organize the event via emails and phone calls and then getting Tom to the event without him knowing proved to me quite a task. He sensed something was up on Friday afternoon when some other friends who he shares a meat draw at the local legion suggested going for dinner. He did guess that we had something planned but when he walked into the room and saw 22 other people there he was more than a little humble - some of the attendees he and myself included hadn't seen since the Y close at the end of the 2006.

There were some others who couldn't attend but did send along best wishes..

We had a great time - a few stories were told that left the group in stitches.

Below are some images of the evening events.

The birthday man himself - Tom

Barb with the cake.

Presenting the cake to Tom.

It clearly states 60.

Trying to blow out the candles.

Barb and our server Amanda.


Barb pinning the #60 on Tom's chest.

Cheers

Dennis

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Y Connections Volunteer Recognition Party Sunday Oct 18, 2009

My second event on Sunday was the annual YMCA Connections program volunteer recognition party at Ryerson Church Hall in Kerrisdale.

As a Canadian host for new immigrants I qualify for this event.

After been greeted by Program Manager Linda we are entertained by one of the program participants to a couple of violin members and then it was time for some pizza.

The major highlight of the event was a Capeoira display - they did two numbers and had the audience clapping along.

After this it was time for Connections manager Cathryn to hand out the recognition certificates.










Cheers

Dennis

Brewsdaddle Fun Run Oct 18, 2009

Sunday morning found me heading down to Brockton Oval in Stanley Park on the bike to help with a newish fun run call Brewsdaddle - it is the brain child of one of the head honchos of the Subaru Triathlon that I volunteered for earlier in the year. This marks the second year the event has been held and is Oktoberfest themed.

The race is a one km kids walk along the track at the Oval and/or a 5km run around the area of the Oval - there were 150 pre registrants and a number of others at the last minute as the weather is cooperating - that is - no rain although cloudy and threatening. You are encourage to dress in costumes - you will notice some of them when you click on the images.

I will be one of the two bike cyclists leading the pack around the course - my biking buddy Gerald Joe will be the other one.

But first we need to set up the course - put up the KM markers and Caution race in progress signs - as this is a fun event there is no closure of the Seawall so we will have to ask people to stand clear as the runners pass.

So after setting up the course we are then asked to ride it one more time to ensure that the Volunteer Course Marshals are placed effectively and to give them instructions on our final sweep.

Before I know it is 11AM and time for the race to get underway at the starting point near HMCS Discovery on the Seawall.

It takes the lead runners less than 20 minutes to run the course and all participants were finished in under an hour - in fact as Gerald and I swept the course we only met up with the final two finishers about a km from the finish line.

After the race we adjourned to the Pavilion for some German food - pretzels, potato salad, sausages and sauerkraut and there was beer for sale and a few samples from the good folks at Granville Island brewing in the upstairs bar - I passed on this as I have another engagement in the afternoon that I need to drive too.

By the time I got home just after noon I had close to 40KM of riding done - not bad for a morning.











For some reason I can't get the images to work on IE any more so I am using the Chrome browser from Google to get the job done.

Cheers

Dennis

Sunday, October 18, 2009

A brief respite from the rains brings some nice colors to life Oct 17, 2009

The rains have returned to Vancouver big time - we are in a south westerly flow - which at this time of the year is a wet and warm weather pattern with much of the moisture originating near the Hawaiian Islands - the storms usually come in waves perhaps 18 - 24 hours apart bringing with them heavy rain and wind.

Saturday started out this way but there was a brief respite this afternoon when it cleared off so I grabbed my camera and was able to capture some fall scenes as I walked along the False Creek Seawall - didn't get as far along as I would have like as I met a former Y member and ended up having a fairly lengthy conversation with him and by then the clouds were starting to reform.

Just hope that it dries up as expected on Sunday as I have a bike volunteer assignment in the morning - it is a fun run with an Oktoberfest theme - IE - get some exercise and then get intosome good German food and drink. Won't do much of the latter as I have a Y Connections Volunteer Recognition function in the afternoon to attend as well.







Cheers

Dennis