Monday, December 29, 2008
CANCELLED FUNCTION
For your information we are advising that the 08 Jan '09 social function has been cancelled due to weather conditions & uncertainty.
Please note that we have a function in Febuary & hope to see you all at this one.
Al Mattison Lounge
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Happy Holidays in all cultures
Feliz Navidad is a Spanish phrase meaning "Merry Christmas" (literally "Happy Nativity").
Hanukkah is observed for eight nights, starting on the 25th day of Kislev according to the Hebrew calendar, and may occur from late November to late December on the Gregorian calendarhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanukkah
Kwanzaa is a week-long holiday celebrated primarily in the United States[honoring African heritage, marked by participants lighting a kinara (candle holder). It is observed from December 26 to January 1 each year
Kwanzaa is a week-long holiday celebrated primarily in the United States[honoring African heritage, marked by participants lighting a kinara (candle holder). It is observed from December 26 to January 1 each yearSaturday, December 20, 2008
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Monday, December 15, 2008
Walking Club Saturday 13 Dec
Today, I called Flora and Linda, made coffee, and set out some Christmas cookies and tarts ... they both arrived before 11:00 am (this really does work!) and Brian came into the Seniors Centre shortly afterwards ...
As the day was wet and cold, we caught the #20 bus to Broadway and boarded the Skytrain to Columbia Station in New Westminster ... we browsed the few remaining shops in Westminster Quay before setting out on the broad boardwalk that follows the north shore of the north arm of the Fraser River ... from previous blogs you may recall our last visit to this large indoor market ... most of the kiosks have gone out of business since the Riverboat Casino closed last year ... word is that the rest of the shops will close down soon as the entire market area is being renovated for 2010 ...
Along the first section of the boardwalk are hotels and restaurants, some set on pillars over the walkway ... further on are condo buildings 3-6 storeys high, with a few new condo towers located behind ... ground level railway tracks that are still in use parallel the raised skytrain system behind the condo developments ... many signposts of historical interest, too many to mention in this blog, are set up at viewing points along the walkway ... next summer I will take a notebook and record some of the information about this city, the oldest major shipping port on the west coast ... in the meantime, we found one item worth mentioning during this Christmas Season:
A 32-foot tall statue, weighing five tons, built by Sheet Metal Workers International in November 2000 and guaranteed to last more than 100 hundred years ... originally located at the Armory of the New Westminster Regiment on Queens Avenue, it was moved to the Quay on Valentines Day on 2002 ... on that day, a time capsule was buried in the statue to be opened in 2025 ... this statue is The World's Largest Tin Soldier, wearing a Sergeant Major's scarlet tunic, flat round hat and dark blue trousers with wide red stripe down the outside ... the statue was built for the Royal Christmas Festival and dedicated to Simon Fraser Society for Community Living which helps special needs children and adults with disabilities ... it could use a fresh coat of paint which will likely be done during the upgrading next year ...
Next Saturday, we are thinking of going to Gastown to soak up some Christmas atmosphere in Gassy Jack's neighbourhood ... Gassy Jack was a rebel with a cause during the early days of Vancouver ... at that time, a teetotaller (can't remember his name) owned all of the downtown lands ... he would not allow any liquor to be brought or consumed on his property, which ended at the square where Gassy Jack's statue stands ... Jack had just landed a shipload of barrels of liquor ... he bought the piece of land immediately adjacent to the prohibitionist's property and, having no resources of his own to build a saloon, invited idle workers to build a saloon in exchange for as much liquor as they could drink ... the saloon was built in two days and the town was no longer in the control of the Prohibition ... such is the character of Gastown, named after Gassy Jack ... why he was called Gassy Jack is any one's guess ...
Until next week, drive safely and keep the home fires burning.
Contributor Virginia B
As the day was wet and cold, we caught the #20 bus to Broadway and boarded the Skytrain to Columbia Station in New Westminster ... we browsed the few remaining shops in Westminster Quay before setting out on the broad boardwalk that follows the north shore of the north arm of the Fraser River ... from previous blogs you may recall our last visit to this large indoor market ... most of the kiosks have gone out of business since the Riverboat Casino closed last year ... word is that the rest of the shops will close down soon as the entire market area is being renovated for 2010 ...
Along the first section of the boardwalk are hotels and restaurants, some set on pillars over the walkway ... further on are condo buildings 3-6 storeys high, with a few new condo towers located behind ... ground level railway tracks that are still in use parallel the raised skytrain system behind the condo developments ... many signposts of historical interest, too many to mention in this blog, are set up at viewing points along the walkway ... next summer I will take a notebook and record some of the information about this city, the oldest major shipping port on the west coast ... in the meantime, we found one item worth mentioning during this Christmas Season:
A 32-foot tall statue, weighing five tons, built by Sheet Metal Workers International in November 2000 and guaranteed to last more than 100 hundred years ... originally located at the Armory of the New Westminster Regiment on Queens Avenue, it was moved to the Quay on Valentines Day on 2002 ... on that day, a time capsule was buried in the statue to be opened in 2025 ... this statue is The World's Largest Tin Soldier, wearing a Sergeant Major's scarlet tunic, flat round hat and dark blue trousers with wide red stripe down the outside ... the statue was built for the Royal Christmas Festival and dedicated to Simon Fraser Society for Community Living which helps special needs children and adults with disabilities ... it could use a fresh coat of paint which will likely be done during the upgrading next year ...
Next Saturday, we are thinking of going to Gastown to soak up some Christmas atmosphere in Gassy Jack's neighbourhood ... Gassy Jack was a rebel with a cause during the early days of Vancouver ... at that time, a teetotaller (can't remember his name) owned all of the downtown lands ... he would not allow any liquor to be brought or consumed on his property, which ended at the square where Gassy Jack's statue stands ... Jack had just landed a shipload of barrels of liquor ... he bought the piece of land immediately adjacent to the prohibitionist's property and, having no resources of his own to build a saloon, invited idle workers to build a saloon in exchange for as much liquor as they could drink ... the saloon was built in two days and the town was no longer in the control of the Prohibition ... such is the character of Gastown, named after Gassy Jack ... why he was called Gassy Jack is any one's guess ...
Until next week, drive safely and keep the home fires burning.
Contributor Virginia B
Sunday, December 14, 2008
NEW YEAR"S celebration
“ALL THAT GLITTERS”
Dance the night away
AL MATTISON LOUNGE
Thursday 08 Jan’09
6:00pm-9:00pm
Dinner & Entertainment
$10.00pp
Register latest 05 Jan’09
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Walking Club 06 Dec
Today, I arrived at the seniors centre at 10:30, put on a pot of coffee, and filled the dishwasher ... I called Flora and Linda to say coffee's on and they arrived at 10:45 ... hmm, this seems to get them here on time !! Flora's friend Brian joined us and later my daughter Kristl (she is practising to be a senior today) ...
We caught the #20 bus to Robson and Seymour Streets and walked to Georgia and Howe past the Georgia Hotel which was not open because of construction of a residential tower ... at the Hornby Street corner, I pointed out the HSBC pendulum gallery behind glass walls ... the pendulum was not swinging today, but a brass plaque indicated that it was designed by Alan Storey of Summerland BC ... the pendulum is 90 feet long, suspended from the glass ceiling to about 10 feet above the ground floor ... hydraulically controlleld, it swings 20 feet distance barely contacting a similar pillar mounted on the floor ...
The Four Seasons Hotel displayed Christmas trees on two levels ... this year is the 25th anniversary of the christmas tree charity drive and many organizations and corporations decorated trees with their own themes: the Recycling Depot's tree was covered in empty pop cans; another tree was mounted in a bathtub with rubber boots on the feet and rubber ducks of various sizes on the tree; one tree was covered in multi-colored blossoms, another in autumn leaves with gold, orange and red ornaments; several trees featured toys as the main theme; Children's Hospital tree was hung with photos of babies who received medical care at the hospital; BC Hydro's tree included tiny knitted sweaters hanging on clothes lines with wooden clothes pegs; the architectural theme of one tree included pencils and drafting stencils, the tree skirt consisting of architect's floor plans ... many other trees were beautifully simple in color themes such as blue and silver or purple and gold with ribbons and balls, or handmade ornaments made of recycled materials by young children ...
Next we visited the Vancouver Hotel with uniform sized trees lining the full length of the lobby, covered in multi-colored LED lights ... the Hyatt Hotel had displays of gingerbread houses, towns, Vancouver schools, several depictions of the Eiffel Tower, a Paris city street, Whoville [from the movie "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas"]; a map of Canada with plasticine characters and ornaments depicting the different regions of the country - a skier for BC, a giant snowball for Labrador ... one of the smaller displays was a two-storey dining room complete with tiny dishes filled with miniature food items, imprints of gingerbread men were on the walls and the roof tiles were thin chocolate bakers discs ... the largest display was 15 feet high and 20 feet long: the front of a life-size gingerbread house with deep overhanging eaves behind a white picket fence ... some of the ingredients used to build this 'giant' gingerbread house were 1400 eggs, 30 kg of icing sugar, 16 kg of pastry flour, 4 kg of molasses as well as several kilograms of a few secret items to add flavour ...
From the Hyatt, we walked through a light rain to the Pan Pacific Hotel only to find the ground floor lobby empty ... an attendant told us no display was set up this year due to construction of the new 2010 Conference Centre beside Canada Place ... we caught the skytrain at Burrard Station to return to the Drive ...
Contributor Virginia B
Photos by Laurette V
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