The following was contributed by Jennifer who attended Cornucopia on behalf of Miss604.com
Wind and heavy rain weren’t enough to put a damper on this year’s Cornucopia food and wine fest. From wine tastings and food seminars to amazing parties there was much to take in over this past weekend in Whistler.
November is one of the slowest times for the resort and we were surprised at how few people were actually around in the village. This of course means exceptional deals at local hotels who are trying to fill rooms before the busy ski season. We always book through Whistler Accommodation up to as little as a few hours before we arrive in order to get the ‘last minute’ bargains. You don’t actually know until you’ve booked (credit card and all) where you will be staying but are told room size and rating. Both times we’ve done this we’ve ended up at a 5 star hotel, steps from the village at a seriously discounted rate.
Friday after checking in we headed over to the Telus Conference Center (which is conveniently located right in the village) to pick up our media passes and received a lovely bag filled with goodies from some of the festival sponsors.
That evening we walked back to the conference center to take part in CRUSH. The opening Gala, wine tasting event. I was thoroughly impressed with how friendly the staff and volunteers all were and felt very welcomed. Not only were there dozens of wineries represented but many tasty treats, everything from the delicious Rogers Chocolates and Tim Tams to Terra Breads, Natural Pastures (cheeses) and Red Leaf premium water. Continue reading this post ⟩⟩
After my weekly spot on Talk1410am’s Afternoon Buzz I arrived home to find my review copy of the Vancouver Book of Everything sitting in my mailbox. It’s taken me a few hours to flip through the thorough guide to our city and I have to say, it’s pretty good.
The book combines tourist elements ie. where to get cheap eats, with facts that even seasoned Vancouverites may not know. It gives a pretty basic “Vancouver 101” rundown and has statistics and demographics peppered throughout various chapters such as: Urban Geography, Weather, People, Culture, Economy, Then and Now, Politics, Crime and Punishment.
Things I didn’t quite “get”
- The chapter entitled Slang is reminiscent of Douglas Coupland’s City of Glass, which is fine although I’m not sure Vander Zalm‘s defunct “Fantasy Garden World” counts as slang any everyday Vancouverite would utter. It’s also not-so-lovely to see “Slurrey” in there as a derogatory term for Surrey alongside “Surrey Girl”.
- Under “Urban Geography” I was pretty much unaware of the “Great White Way”. The area in question is, as the book states, “What the locals call Granville Street.” I’m pretty sure I’ve never uttered those words in relation to Vancouver, let alone Granville Street (downtown’s entertainment district, not South Granville or South Vancouver). However I grew up in Slurrey so maybe I just hadn’t heard of that before.
- Also under “Urban Geography” it says that PoCo is “Port Coquitlam, one of three cities in Greater Vancouver that includes Coquitlam and Port Moody.” As PoCo is actually its own city (same with Port Moody and Coquitlam) I think they meant to mention something here about the “TriCities” instead.
Things I loved
- Throughout the book they have “Top 5” lists compiled by local leaders in their fields. Hal Wake contributed a list of Top 5 Influential BC Writers and I’m more than pleased to see Pauline Johnson on the list (I won’t tell you where, I wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise).
- “On April 24, 1872 when Gassy climbed to the roof of Deighton House and hoisted the first Canadian flag to fly in Burrard Inlet.” I didn’t know that, but Chuck Davis did.
- Jen Sookfong Lee’s Top 5 Best Things About Living in Vancouver including “history” is awesome because well, I am known to love a little bit of Vancouver history myself.
- Everything else is top notch info, from Gassy Jack to the Malahat.
I was very pleased to see input from Chuck Davis, whom I look up to the most when it comes to Vancouver history – well he comes in second place, right after my father anyway.
The book is comprehensive and the fact they they dedicated an entire chapter to the weather shows that they know what Vancouverites have on their mind every day. You might fight it, but it’s true; I write one post about an umbrella or a ray of sunshine and the comments go through the roof.
I encourage you to pick up your copy (or a copy of visitors/out-of-towners) for $14.95 at Chapters (as Raul noted), at other fine book stores, and online through Amazon
. It’s a small book, very handy, and might just fit perfectly in a stocking.
This is also a series so you can also pick up other volumes to learn “everything” about Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, PEI, Montreal, Ottawa, Hamilton, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Edmonton, Calgary, and Vancouver Island.
Thanks to my all-knowing husband and his Twitter stream, I discovered a short while ago that Vancouver crowd-favourite ex-Canucks GM, Brian Burke will be leaving the Anaheim Ducks.
There is a press conference today at 12:00/12:30pm Pacific where the Ducks will make the announcement regarding Executive Vice President and General Manager, Brian Burke. [CBC]. There is also much speculation about where he will end up and the rumour mill is looking at Toronto so far.
Brian Burke is also a co-owner of the Chilliwack Bruins, and brought the Stanley Cup to Cottonwood Mall when the Ducks were on top of the NHL. He is also married to Vancouver radio and TV personality, Jennifer Mathers.
It will be interesting to see where he ends up especially since the Canucks take on the Leafs this Saturday at GM Place.
Update: The press conference is live on the Ducks website. Brian Burke was not fired, but he declined the contract that was offered him. “What Brian Burke has done for this franchise is remarkable,” Michael Schulman, CEO. Burke will be staying on as a special consultant while Bob Murray slips into the GM role.
Last week I met up with Paul at Central City for some breakfast, a chat, and some good old fashioned Surrey talk. Paul Hillsdon is a blogger that I crossed paths with a few years ago now and he’s taken his passion for transit planning, environmental responsibility and education to the next level by running for Surrey City Council and Surrey School Board in the civic elections this Saturday.
I started off by asking him some of the basics about the municipal elections and he was kind enough to clarify that only Surrey and Vancouver have ‘parties’ (which are more like coalitions) such as Surrey Civic Coalition, Surrey Electors Team, COPE, the NPA, or Vision Vancouver, since they are the largest cities in the region. Paul himself is running as an independent.
I then decided to get his thoughts about the strong sense of voter apathy in Canada, particularly among youth (since he is still a teenager himself – although wise beyond his years). “I thought I would be able to reach out to youth but even that’s tricky. Sure, they’ll join the Facebook group but will they come out and help?”.
“I think with the youth it’s more of a matter of them being able to convince others to vote,” Paul noted. He feels that young people play a very strong role as influencers. When I asked what he thought might help he simply replied, “…. a Canadian Obama?” Although that was followed by laughter I think we both knew there was definitely some truth to that statement. Canadians (on all levels of government) need to have a leader and representative that is passionate and they can really get behind – someone who will also be seen in the community.
One thing that Paul is passionate about is transit and he’s outlined an ambitious yet extremely responsible and practical proposal with his Transit for Tomorrow plan.
“The detailed plan is quite simple: shift $1.1 billion provincial dollars from 6 km of SkyTrain in Surrey to funding a 43.4 km light rail network across Surrey and Langley.”
In fact, transportation is one of the main reasons Paul has even considered a career in politics. “It was a matter of timing,” he noted “I decided to run and bring this to everyone’s attention.” However he’s also branching out and you’ll find his name in two places on your ballot this Saturday.
Paul Hillsdon and Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts
“School Board was a last minute thing,” said Paul. “If I’m bringing transportation to the forefront in Council, I might as well bring the students’ perspective to the School Board because there’s a huge generation gap there.” Paul goes on to note that these are issues that really hit home for him as he admits when he was 15 he almost dropped out of school, “this is the reality of the system today – and things need to change.”
Paul has some interesting ideas for his School Board platform such as giving the students more of a voice and a place in the Board system. “We need to open it up so that students can take control of their own learning.” He’s also outlined some of his ideas for ’empowering the student’ which would include a district-wide roundtable for student council members, to make sure all levels are communicating. “The Student Council can be more than just a pep rally organizer.”
During our interview my sister arrived and being a Surrey citizen, mother, home owner, and having two children currently in the elementary school system, I thought she would be a good person for Paul to speak with.
She asked him about developments around the city and more specifically about the Campbell Heights fiasco, something that was recently brought up at the Surrey civic election forum. Campbell Heights is an industrial park where construction, industrialization and development threaten the sensitive eco-system of the Little Campbell River. This has even grabbed the attention of the David Suzuki Foundation. With Paul’s vision also concerning sustainable development and green building strategies, this is a project he adamantly opposes.
It’s encouraging to see someone with so much ambition (and so many fresh ideas) take initiative like this. I encourage everyone to read more about Paul’s platform and proposals: The Paul in ’08 campaign site, Paul’s website, Facebook event page, Facebook group page, and Civic Surrey.
If you live in the Greater Vancouver region, chances are your city will be holding an election this Saturday. For more information on how and where to vote, you can browse the CBC’s Civic Vote 2008 page with fun clickable maps, or view some of my election coverage. Polls are open this Saturday, November 15th from 8:00am until 8:00pm.
Photos in this post are all from Paul’s Flickr stream
Gift cards are everywhere these days and just this morning I heard an ad for Safeway that boasted their selection of 100 different cards, from pre-loaded meals at Earls to weekend getaways at a Marriott hotel – you can give anyone, anything this holiday season and it will all fit nicely into an envelope.
While browsing the Boing Boing Gadgets last night I came across the new Target Gift Cards, one of which doubles as a digital camera.
The camera comes with a USB cord, driver disk, instruction manual and a voucher for 40 free prints from the Target photo center. The camera runs on two AAA batteries an also has a self timer. [Coolest Gadgets]
Available in increments of $50 – $1,000 you can give that special someone a shopping spree at Target, as well as a 1.2 megapixel camera with 8MB of memory.
When giving or receiving a gift card, fees and expiry dates come to mind although apparently Target gets rid of all that mess and also gives you the option to reload the card.
Other creative offerings in Target’s GC department include the gift card/night light, gift card/USB key (64 MB), and the gift card/m&m candy tin.
It’s fun to see companies stepping up to not only engage their customers but to also help them get more use out of a little piece of plastic that would more than likely up in the trash after first or second use. I know if I had a little white Target dog USB key kicking around that it would get repeated use – as would the new sweater, socks, cosmetics, and cookies that the gift card would cover. It’s not much (the 64MB for example), but to me it’s that extra hint of personalization that can make this “I wasn’t sure what to get you” gift seem a little more special.
