Paolo Gaspar

Sunday and Monday were pretty much about Whistler. I spent most of Monday getting ready to get out. The sun was shining and I was very excited about the night and next day to follow.

I bought a new outfit for the night. I took one of my old jeans and just them right above the knee. Then I went out and bought a Las Vegas Choppers shirt in a children’s size medium, and a hat from Corrections Canada. I cut the sleeves off the shirt, put on the jeans, and here was the result;

I was quite happy with it. I eventually rubbed the shirt around in some dirty to make sure that I had the look down pat. That outfit did not come off until about 2am the next morning.

Tyler, Adam, and David came to my house early to pick up my snowboard and boots, then headed off early so that they can check in. I had to stay behind and give Billy and Bryan a ride up. It was a little frustrating as Bryan told me that he’d be off work at 7pm. When I went to go see him, he said he’d be off work “soon, some time between 7 and 8.” It was at that point that he clarified that his shift was ‘open’ and that it pretty well depends on the volume at the bar. We eventually went on our way by 755p.

The drive up to Whistler wasn’t bad. The roads were dry and there was a decent amount of daylight left. We also went for a food run before leaving surrey, so we didn’t have to stop in Squamish. Even though I wasn’t able to maintain my goal of going at least 100km/h the whole way, we still made it to Whistler (from Surrey) in 1 hour and 44 minutes - that’s from the Wendy’s on Scott Rd by 96th, to the front door of The Delta Whistler.

Tyler, Adam and David had already gotten started at the hotel room;

I also noticed this and almost couldn’t believe my eyes. In the end, they told me that it was actually just hot chocolate mix and that it’s totally take to lick the stuff off the seat.

Soon after we got our stuff ‘unpacked’ (and I used that term loosely) we headed out for drinks, despite having already brought enough alcohol to kill an elephant.

We usually go to the Dubb Linh, but Billy suggested going to the Longhorn Saloon. I was a little skeptical, but I knew that we all needed to keep an open mind about it. The first sign was the line up to get in. The second sign was the fact that there was a cover to get inside. I would’ve understood if I thought we were going to a club, but I wanted to get some shepard’s pie, have half a guiness, then retreat back to the room. The third sign was the hip hop music. I don’t enjoy clubs much so I didn’t get get too much out of the experience. The only cool thing about it was that we met a couple of aussies. Adam was the one who talked to them the most. I had a couple words about cars, but that was about it. Was it all worth the $8 cover, expensive drinks, and all the cold outside? I don’t think so. Next time, I’ll be going to the Dubb Lihn.

We went off to 7-11 after that so I can grab some food. Billy was nursing as he broke his wrist while running from the Longhorn. I bought be some beef jerky and salt and vinegar chips. We went back to the hotel after that and it was about 140a by that time. The other guys went to sleep pretty quickly. I think I fell asleep around 2 or so. I can’t remember. Oh, I bought a Hungry Man too. A pound of food is a lot smaller than those commercials might make it seem to be.

The next day it was raining. We were taken quite aback by it. We had breakfast at Black’s and reconvened back at the room. We decided not to go snowboarding because the clouds had completely covered the ridable part of Blackcomb (which only had two chairs serving it). Instead, we decided to rent mountain bikes. That was pretty fun. We did a lotta small stuff. Billy was king of it all since he rides bikes, but the rest of us were taking it easy.

We stopped for lunch at McD’s. Bryan was paranoid about leaving our $800 rented bikes outside unlocked. I suppose he didn’t notice the $5000 bikes that were unlocked sitting next to ours.

We dropped off our bikes at the rental store at 300p and went back to the Delta to hit up the hot tub. It was fun and Bryan had an egg thrown at him. He was quite upset, but it wasn’t a direct hit so it was ok. A trip to the Glass Elevator completed the trip and I was back in Vancouver by 7pm.

I hung out with Meg later on that evening. We tried to get food but everyone was closed early because of the holiday. We just went back to my place where I grabbed a bite to eat. Meg wasn’t hungry so she had none at the time (quite thankfully too cuz I didn’t have time to make steak or something that she would like much better).

Tomorrow is the City and Colour concert. Three years in a row! This guy must be tired. haha

The forecast on Saturday the 17th called for temperatures into the high 20’s and low 30’s. Given this, I thought that it would be very busy, so I suggested that I pick up Meg at 830a. She agreed. I was very excited.

I woke up at 600a to get ready for the day. I packed up the tent, the bbq, and some other food. I took a shower before I left and I was out by 705a. It took a little longer cuz I was double- and triple-checking, and I also booked a room for 6 Cobras in Whistler, but I’ll save that for another entry. I picked up breakfast at Timmy’s on Marine as it was on the way.

We got to Jericho beach (turns out it wasn’t Locarno) at 9am or so. There wasn’t anyone there and we got the absolute best [free :-D] parking spot. We were quite full from breakfast, so we refrained from eating for the time being. I got my charcoal bbq ready for lighting, then we went into the tent to rest for a bit cuz we got up so damn early. hahaha.

There was one lone park ‘ranger’ there and she was kind enough. She told us that the homeless people in the park are harmless. We had only encountered one homeless person (or at least he looked homeless). He just rode his bike past our spot and that was about it.

We passed most of the time by watching Eddie Murphy’s RAW on my iPod using Meghan’s speakers.

It was around 1145a or so when we decided to start cooking. Apparently it was a mistake to leave the self-start briquettes out for so long as the lighter fluid on the surface had evaporated. It was a bit of a pain in the ass to get it lit, made worse by the fact that we were getting hungry, but we eventually got it started.

We didn’t have a whole lot packed, but we packed exactly what we wanted. I four steaks cut from a tenderloin that I bought (filet mignon, if you will), five hot dogs, and potato salad. The steaks were seasoned using a seasoning that Meg’s mom had bought. The first pair was made the best … we cooked it to about medium rare and it was absolutely perfect. The seasoning had crisped seared nicely and the inside was nice and juicy. We couldn’t stop praising it.

The second pair of steaks were less impressive. We learned that salt-based seasonings should not be left on a steak for too long before grilling. It saturates the salt which gets into the meat making it extremely salty. It was still good for what it was worth. The potatos and hot dogs were … just potatoes and hot dogs. They were ok.

We rested for a little bit more before putting all our stuff back into the car to take a walk on the beach. The beach was ok. There were a lot of shells and stuff on the beach. The water was brown and cold. That’s ok though, as I am willing to forego blue water and white sand for everything else that Vancouver has to offer.

Jericho was a fantastic choice, I must say. As we drove down Cornwall on the way to Kerrisdale, we caught a glimpse of English Bay at 200p and it was CROWDED. Jericho, on the other hand, afforded us a TON of room for ourselves.

After the beach, we went to Kerrisdale Cameras (the one in Kerrisdale) to look at cameras. Meg ended up leaving the store with a Canon XTi! To play around with the new equipment, we went to English Bay for a bbq shawarma dinner and to watch the sunset.

We also had dessert at True Confections, but it wasn’t all that good for me. I had a slice of Mud Cake and she had Strawberry Shortcake. I liked her’s a lot better. I think I’ll just stick to pies there. They can’t really go wrong with those.

We were going to watch SNL later that evening, but we were both so tired that we slept right ’till 230a. Despite that, it was an awesome day. This summer is going to effing rule!

It’s the Victoria Day long weekend this weekend which unofficially kicks off the summer season here in Canada.  I’m super excited as I’ve got quite a bit on the table.

Tomorrow I’ll be going to Locarno beach with Meg for a bbq by the beach.  I’m planning on buying some tenderloin at T&T so we can have filet mignon.  I’ll need a new bbq though because the one I bought last year is a POS.  Ideally my ‘travel’ bbq would have the following features;

• cast iron
• grill grates that are 3-5mm thick
• uses charcoal
• has a cover w/ a vent
• preferably with a temp guage as well.

I can’t seem to find anything like this at the local stores (Canadian Tire, Home Depot, etc).  Maybe I’ll check out walmart later this evening if I have time.

Sunday evening will be with Tyler, Bryan, and Billy.  We’re all planning to go up to Blackcomb to spend the night partying (ok, drinking in out hotel room) and then riding all day monday to bid the 2007-2008 snowboarding season one last hurrah.  It’s sure to be lots of fun as trips to Whistler always have.

On a side note, today was exceptionally nice.  I walked to work and it was effing fantastic.  it’s also nice to have parking in the basement so as to keep my car nice and cool.  There was once a time when I would park at the P5 level here at Central City.  After a long hot day of basking in the sun, I would have to let my car airate for a few minutes before it was comfortable enough inside for me to stay in it the 4 minute trip home.  My seats are also leather so it would burn bad.  So yeah … I’m quite happy with what I’ve got now.  I can’t wait to give her a good wash so she’s nice and sparkly again!

With the idea of truly going ‘wireless’ finally making the mainstream, I’m happy to see that the infrastructure needed to support this wave of technology is really becoming incorporated into our every day lives.

I’m writing this while at international arrivals in the Vancouver International Airport while waiting for my mom and sister to come back from their 3.5 week vacation in the Philippines. At first I thought that the hotspot was isolated just to the Starbucks upstairs, but when I checked the name of the signal, it simply said “YVR_PUBLIC”. I booked it downstairs and opened up my Macbook to see that the signal was actually stronger down here.

I just got back from a 2 week vacation of my own in the Philippines and Japan. I had never been to Japan before, at least outside of the confines of Narita International Airport. I expected Japan to be one GIANT (and free) hotspot. Perhaps my comprehension of the Japanese language just isn’t up to snuff, but I didn’t find that to be the case. In fact, the internet connection in the airport charged users ¥750 for a day. neither were there any coffee shops or anything of the sort where people would go with their laptops to surf the net while sipping their coffee (or tea, I suppose). What they do have though are crazy cell phones that I can only assume their surf the net with. I found that almost everyone would open up their cell phones and play with them while their rode the trains to and from and destinations.

Here in Vancouver we have a lot more hotspots, at least as far as I can tell. Many coffee shops offer complimentary wireless internet with one chain, Waves, making it a selling point in their advertising. Aberdeen Centre in Richmond is the first mall in the Lower Mainland (and probably in BC) to offer free wireless. Also, here at the airport, it’s free and presumably everywhere (I can only confirm it works in the International Terminal here). The signal is also nice and strong. In a more underhanded way, one can even troll neighbourhood streets and find an unprotected wireless signal. I believe there are devices that fit on a keychain which will pick up on these signals.

So yeah, I’m loving Vancouver’s wireless hotspots. It was particularly helpful today as I was able to purchase five Stone Temple Pilot tickets for Tyler, Bryan, and myself. I came just in the nick of time, so all I had to do was open up my computer and make a few clicks. Now all I need to do is wait for my family, quickly check am730traffic.com to find the best route home, and I’m golden. Absolutely beautiful!