Disneyland for Five: A Disneyland Princess
One minute she is racing round the house because Thomas the train has to beat Gordon, the really BIG engine, to the station. The next minute her hands are waving as she sings the names of the 50 states of the US, in perfect alphabetical order. But her favorite activity is playing princess, and Cinderella is her most favorite princess of all.
So for a little princess living half an hour away from Anaheim, what better 5 year birthday treat could you imagine than taking her to Disneyland for a Princess makeover at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique at Cinderella's Castle, and the chance to meet some of the other Princesses?
As usual the household was buzzing by 6 am as I made my coffee and CJ got her own breakfast together.
The plan was that we were to leave for Disneyland by just after 7:30 for the 9 am appointment at the boutique.
Getting one baby, one 5 year old and three adults organized always takes longer than anticipated, even if you think you have fully prepared things like diaper bags and changes of clothes, the night before.
But a very excited CJ quickly dressed herself in her pale blue Cinderella dress, tiara and all, and we made it to the Bibbidi Bobbidi reception desk just on the stroke of 9.
Two nights in Bangkok
Post-Cruise Stop-over in Bangkok, Thailand after the Southeast Asia Ballroom Dance Cruise
"One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster" - well, ok, not quite. With apologies to Tim Rice, I have been humming and singing that song intermittently whenever our stop-over in the city Bangkok came up in conversation. I couldn't believe that those lines went over everyone's head - no one had heard the song. Maybe it was my off -key singing voice.
I had a two-night stay in Bangkok planned for after the South-East Asia cruise and was looking forward to seeing what I remembered of the city from my previous visits as a medical consultant.
Sunday, November 22nd, Bangkok
The Diamond Princess arrived in the port of Laem Chabang, Thailand around 7 am. It is a good hour's drive from there to the city.
Helene, Jean, Raoul and I met in the Savoy Restaurant where we waited to be allowed to disembark. Amazingly the promised transport arranged by our hotel actually arrived and drove us to the Citadines Hotel,one of a chain of small suite business hotels in the city.
Our rooms, which we had booked through Orbitz, were quite reasonable - about 79 USD a night but we were about three-quarters of an hour away from the prime hotel locations on the banks of the Chao Phraya river. On my last two-week working visit to Bangkok I stayed at the Sheraton where I had a gorgeous view of the river.
This time our hotel was just off one of the main streets running through the city, called Sukhumvit. It is described as a "sprawling artery which runs through Central Bangkok. Between Soi 1 and Soi 33 is the visitor region as there are hotels ranging from low priced to luxury 5 star, along the road and in adjoining streets.Judging by the shops and restaurants nearby to our hotel area, Sukhumvit 11, it looked like a Little India area.
My room had a kitchenette area. The furnishing was simple but clean. The only flaw as I discovered later the next morning was that the shower obstinately refused to bring forth any warm water at all. So I shivered through a quick wash and rinse and gave up on the idea of washing my hair hoping that the next shower would be warmer.
After we had dropped off our bags,washed up and sorted out the tour arrangements for the evening - we were going on a river boat dinner cruise - we set off to explore the area.
At a bank a couple of blocks away the others changed some US dollars for baht. I had already got some in Vancouver so did not need to worry about that.
Talking Stick Festival Opening Gala
Talking Stick Festival: Opening Gala and Festival Week
Presented by Full Circle, Talking Stick Festival and
The Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Centre
At the Roundhouse and other venues
February 21 to 28, 2010
Vancouver , BC: To the accompaniment of occasional roars from the hordes watching the Canada-USA hockey game on the giant screen at Yaletown Live, we strolled down a relatively quiet Pacific Boulevard to The Roundhouse to attend the opening gala of the Talking Stick festival.
We had arrived at 6 for the reception and chattered to several people visiting for the Olympics, as we waited in line.The house opened shortly before 7 and we found seats at a table for four and were joined by a couple up for a visit from the Napa Valley. Things started off with a great beat with the Talking Stick house band 'Friends of the Indians' rocking the Roundhouse. They were joined for another rocking number by singer Gillian Thomson of "Sister Says".
We were welcomed to the opening by co-hosts Greg Coyes of APTN's The Mix and Theresa Point, Festival Artistic Director Margo Kane and several other gracious hosts before a plethora of traditional songs and dances were performed by Spakwus Slulem, the Eagle Song dancers of the Squamish nation; Tsatsu Stalqayu, of the Coastal Wolf pack of the Musqueam nation and the traditional Gitksan Dancers of Damelahamid.
Chris Bose, poet and storyteller among his other talents, read poems from his newly published book "Stone the Crow."
Shanghai River Restaurant
Shanghai River Restaurant
#110-7831 Westminster Highway,
Richmond, BC
Ph: (604) 233-8885
With its large diverse Chinese community, Vancouver celebrates Chinese New Year in style. This year a group of us, 12 in all, took the Canada Line out to Richmond, for a Chinese New Year banquet at the Shanghai River Restaurant. Arranged by Susan, whose petite frame belies her formidable social organizational skills, the evening promised to be a veritable feast and it was.
As we were led to our table which seated 12 quite comfortably, we passed by the pastry area where the dumplings and noodles are freshly made. We sipped on our hot tea while Susan and Nick decided what needed to be added to the standard banquet menu for 10 people. The rest of us debated whether to order beer or wine. Five of us settled on a bottle of Mission Hill white wine of unknown varietal. The menu did not specify. We guessed it was a Pinot Blanc or Pinot Gris but we got so involved with the various dishes that we forgot to ask them to bring back the bottle so we could check. The others ordered beers.
We were first served a cold platter with tofu, jellyfish, smoked white fish, chicken and bamboo shoots.
Next came a speciality of the house, dumplings filled with meat and broth, that were quite delicious. I also liked the pan fried tiger prawns but found the assorted seafood dish (scallops, squid and fish) very bland.
DELUSION
Delusion by Laurie Anderson
with Eyvund Kang (viola) and Colin Stetson (horns)
Commissioned by the Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad and BARBICANBITE10
Vancouver Playhouse
Feb 17 to 21st, 2010.
Vancouver, BC: Yesterday I found myself on the opposite side of an interview - interviewee rather than interviewer. I was checking in for my last shift in the Main Press Centre and unbeknownst to me, lurking around the check-in desk was one of the volunteers who write the daily Volunteer Newsletter. On hearing that this was the last of my 15 shifts he begged, pleaded and cajoled (alright I exaggerate) until I agreed to have a picture taken for the newsletter.
While I was chatting away a mile a minute about the Cultural Olympiad among other things - the caffeine from my early morning coffee was obviously still racing around my system - he asked what I had most enjoyed about the Cultural Olympiad. I began to rattle off memorable aspects from several of the shows I had seen and then when my brain finally caught up to my mouth I stopped and thought about it.
Maenam Thai Restaurant
Maenam Thai Restaurant
1938 West 4th Avenue
Vancouver.
Ph: (604) 730-5579 or Reserve Online
The last time I visited this location at its previous incarnation as Gastropod I enjoyed an excellent meal. Since chef Angus An renamed it Maenam and changed the focus to Thai specialities in May last year, I have not had an opportunity to revisit. But heading off to the Jericho Arts Centre to see The Vic, we decided to test our taste buds against some spicy Thai dishes.
We were seated at a nicely private table adjacent to the bar area, and Janice, our efficient server promptly brought water and took our wine order. I could not resist a glass of Wild Goose Autumn Gold - an exquisite blend of Gewurtztraminer, Riesling and Pinot Blanc that I enjoyed (and brought home several bottles) during my "Taste of the South Okanagan" visit to the Wild Goose Winery in the Fall, 2008. My companion ordered a Chilean Pinot Noir which seemed to go down equally smoothly.
The Vic
The Vic by Leanna Brodie
Directed by Sarah Szloboda
A Terminal Theatre production
Jericho Arts Centre
Feb 16 th to 21 st, 2010
Vancouver, BC: This production of The Vic is an ambitious undertaking by the young Terminal Theatre company which staged its first production in the summer of 2009. For this, their third production, they might have been better served had they chosen a less convoluted play.
The Vic features 8 female characters - described as part victim, part victimisers - in four disparate story lines which finally come together - sort of. I found the continuity of this play hard to follow so without having read the script, here is what I gathered from the show.
The set is dominated by a giant screen on which brief film clips show at different points between the other scenes. This as we discover is the thread that draws the four stories together.
The play opens with women entering the darkened space, each carrying a light, the Spanish singing evoking the "desaparecidos" or "the disappeared" of Latin America. Then we see four local women searching for a missing woman, Cara (April Cameron) whose inner thoughts are revealed through her "diary" shown in the film clips. Cameron's naively wistful, young girl provides the only really sympathetic character in the story.
Dance Marathon
Dance Marathon at The Roundhouse Community Centre
bluemouth Inc. and Boca del Lupo
February 12 th, 2010
Vancouver, BC: I was having a blast at the Dance Marathon until I got eliminated in The Derby - how lame, so to speak! That was when I realized that my competitive streak is as strong as it ever was - because I was not ready to go and I was MAD.
The Dance Marathon is a greatly truncated version of the 1920s and 1930s endurance contests as depicted in the film They Shoot Horses, Don't They. Originally commissioned for Toronto's Harbourfront Centre, Vancouver's Dance Marathon is part of the exciting Cultural Olympiad that has been entertaining us with an incredible variety of art, theatre, music and dance.
As an Olympic volunteer I was able to to see the Opening Ceremonies dress rehearsal on Wednesday night and was really impressed but last night, watching the show on television, I realized what an amazing show Vanoc had put together. As the final speeches were taking place I made my way along Pacific Boulevard to the Roundhouse in time to see on the television there, the two cauldrons being lit.
The ceremony being over, it was time to get the Dance Marathon under way. I signed my waiver form , picked up my number plus a bottle of water and was ready to go. Several of the dancers from the opening ceremony wandered in and joined up. I recognised some of the folks who did the Celtic dancing with that amazingly fast footwork. Some competition!
Wine Bar at The Cultch
The Wine Bar at The Cultch
1895 Venables Street, Vancouver
Tucked away on the corner of Venables Street and Victorian Drive, a block east of buzzing Commercial Drive, the creaky old Vancouver East Cultural Theatre had a quaint charm for theatre lovers despite its uncomfortable seats and awkwardly located washrooms. Originally an old abandoned church that was developed into a theatre space some thirty-seven years ago, the facility suffered from structural and technical limitations and uncomfortable working conditions for casts and crews and has now been extensively renovated.
I had seen several shows in the new and smaller VanCity Culture Lab which opened towards the end of 2008 but until now had not seen the refurbished main Historic Theatre. After picking up our tickets for Best Before we decided to await the start of the show in the Wine bar - what a pleasant surprise. It is a delightful spot with comfortable bar stools placed around about 10 raised bar tables.
Micro-Theatre at The Cultch
The MicroTheatre Series :
At The Cultch (1895 Venables)
1 to 6 Feb, 2010
1) Etiquette - A Rotozaza production (UK)
2) You & The Moon - The Only Animal (Vancouver, BC)
I3) Intimate History - An Untied Artists production (UK)
Vancouver, BC: Three cheers for the new Wine Bar at The Cultch. The Olympic road-closures are at the stage where part of Pacific Boulevard and both the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts are closed to traffic so to get from my place anywhere involves ferreting out new routes. To make sure we were in time for our Micro-Theatre adventure, we set off early along the E. Hastings route to Commercial. Although until just beyond Main Street traffic moved at a snail's pace, after that the pace picked up and we were actually at The Cultch with a good half an hour to spare after collecting our tickets. So we settled down comfortably in the Wine Bar to enjoy a glass of wine while we waited to be called for our show.
