Does it ever worry you when you head into the restaurant at a local restaurant and there’s a sign that reminds workers to be sure to wash their hands for a minimum amount of time or outlines the steps to proper hand washing? I do appreciate the friendly reminder for the staff but still… I also find it funny that things like that will creep me out but I won’t hesitate to grab a hot dog from a street meat vendor downtown at 11:00 on a Saturday night.
I wrote a post about Vancouver Coastal Health Restaurant inspections a few months ago called “The Dirty Banana Leaf“, so I thought I would follow up with VCH’s official list of restaurant closures that was release this past week (available here in pdf)
The main reasons for many of the closures are rodent infestations and unsanitary conditions. Some of the restaurants guilty of this include – Pink Pearl Restaurant on Hastings, Best Western Pizza on Main Street, Blenz Coffee on Robson as well as Ideal Bakery on Dunbar. [News 1130]
…Blenz Coffee on Robson forced to close for a day in March because of unsanitary conditions. The Cactus Club on Davie closed for a day in May because of a lack of potable water, and Tim Hortons on West Pender for a day in May due to pest infestation. [CKNW]
You can read more on the VCH site, as they have archives going back to 2002 as well as worksafe tips. Looking at past reports isn’t much fun, although I’m sure glad to see that Tanpopo has resolved that cockroach infestation that they had in 2002 and Pedro’s Organic Coffee only had “hazardous food” for 3 days in August of 2005. To be fair, most of these are one day closures, like that time in 2004 when Ricky’s had a sewer backup, they were up and running the next day without worry.
The two that hit close to home this time around are Blenz, and then Tim Hortons on Pender as I used to work in that building would often get coffee and a bagel on my way in to the office.
Me: “Ick, TimHo on Pender was closed for a day”
John: “Why?”
Me: “Pest infestation”
John: “What kind of pest?”
Me: “I unno” (continues to type blog post)
John: “Insects? Rodents? Rats?…. Evil Chipmunks?”
Me: “I’ve been looking for an excuse to post that on my blog, thanks!” (Click below…)
These kinds of reports always make me feel queasy and as I mention above, I start to reflect on where I’ve eaten over the past year. But ya know, it’s always better to know that these things are being watched, monitored and taken care of – and I am truly glad that Tanpopo, Blenz and TimHo are okay cause I won’t stop going there… you know, unless they get closed again.
We had a great time last night even though our team lost 10-4. The Canadians organization went all out to make this event a big splash and I believe they were successful.
To start, the national anthem was sung by none other than Mark Donnelly – he’s who John and I call “Opera Man” and usually sings the anthem for Canucks games. He was also accompanied by 5 of his 7 children in a beautiful version of O Canada despite the crackling microphones and sound system.
The opening pitch was a pretty big deal as well as the announcer proclaimed that it was the first time in professional baseball that it has been thrown by a quadriplegic. The man in question was Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan who was able to crank the ball back in some sort of super bionic contraption, wind up and let it sail over home plate.
The game was underway and was pretty close until the 6th inning when the Tri-City Dust Devils went up by 4 runs, and we just never recovered. All the inter-inning hoopla was alive and well this season again including the tricycle races, the giant sandwich making, and goofy dancing with Mr. Peanut (with “It’s Peanut Butter Jelly time” blasting on over the PA).
Down in the concourse the food line ups were pretty atrocious but there is more selection than previous years. Hot dogs, hamburgers, pretzels, popcorn, and even a sushi stand AND you have about 10 flat panel HD TVs mounted on the walls showing major league games.
As today’s game was the first of many “Fireworks Nights”, once things wrapped up a couple firefighters headed to the midfield with an ATV pulling a little trailer. We all sort of scoffed, certain it would be an unimpressive spectacle. Little did we know the amount of explosive that can indeed be towed behind a four-wheel. The show lasted about 20 minutes and sent all varieties of fireworks soaring into the air, into the parking lot, over the stadium walls and let off bangs and booms that could have been heard for miles.
The Canadians play the Dust Devils for their first nooner again today, so hopefully they can bounce back from that first loss. At one point an announcement was made that if you trade in your ticket stub they will give you free tickets to an upcoming game of your choice. So it looks like we’ll be back August 4th… for Mexico night.
We have a forthcoming podcast of the audio from the entire evening ans my camera phone pics are all up on Flickr – in the Canadians Baseball Set.
Last summer I took in my first game *ever* at Nat Bailey Stadium. Being a born and raised local that might come as a surprise although our little ballpark, neatly tucked away just south of downtown near Queen Elizabeth Park is lesser-known that I realized.
It all starts with White Spot, really. Home of the Triple O burger and carhop combos, the first drive in restaurants in Canada were opened up by Nat Bailey in Vancouver, in 1928 [wiki]. He then became part owner of the Vancouver Mounties baseball club who were in the Pacific Coast League until 1970. In 1978 the Vancouver Canadians came alive as a Northwest League expansion [wiki] and today at 7:05pm we have their 22nd Opening Day.
I was never into baseball as a kid, around here it’s all hockey. Actually, I never even went to a hockey game until my late teens either. I think my dad enjoyed taking us on the kinds of outings where we all could get lost in the woods for hours, and learn about local history, rather than dole out hundreds of bucks to take 3 kids to a local sporting event. Not that I’m complaining at all.
The fact that our boys play single A ball could be a factor when it comes to popularity, but when you have a sporting event outdoors, a sunny nooner or evening game, views of the city, hot dogs and beer, classification doesn’t really matter. The team is affiliated with the Oakland A’s and we even made a point of going to their game against Boise last summer, as the Hawks are a part of the Chicago Cubs food chain.
Tonight we’re heading out to the Nat for the Home Opener, complete with hat giveaways and fireworks following the game. Honestly, for the price you cannot beat these tickets. $8 will get you general admission and to have prime festival seats you can upgrade by paying a whopping… $12. You can buy tickets on the website and pick them up at the box office, and you have to check out their “theme nights” this summer including: Mullet Madness, Prom Night, Christmas in June, Canada Day at the Nat Fireworks, Vegas Night, Ladies Night, Mexico Night, Hawaii Day and many many more.
Sometimes I’ll make a totally old school remark that John just doesn’t get. This can usually be explained by the fact that he grew up in Iowa, and I was born and raised in Surrey and that some things are purely Canadian or even West Coast. For example, he has no idea who Hal Johnson and Joanne McLeod are.
As I was just finishing up my previous post I took a gander at Facebook and noticed one of my contacts just left the group “I do the ‘over the head’ clapping motion every time I talk about Kidstreet“. Holy Crap! I thought I was like the only person that remembered that show [wiki]. Whenever I get a little too excited (yes, that does happen sometimes) I’ll go “Kidstreet Clap!” and reach my hands above my head to applaud. After this my husband usually rolls his eyes and looks at me all crazy-like even though I really don’t complain when he does the “High Five!…. Self High Five!” bit.
The defining glory of the Kidstreet Clap is basically that the children on the show were crammed into tiny little race cars with no room to place their arms at their sides – hence forcing the overhead clap.
I think I’m going to leave the Facebook group as quickly as I joined but actually seeing old photos and proving to John that the show did in fact exist, makes it all worthwhile.
After camping last weekend I kinda thought that we would be taking it easy this week but that’s definitely not the case. On Friday afternoon I went out for a drink with work people – well more like the boss packed us all up early and lead us over to the Irish Heather for beer to celebrate someone’s last day with the company. The night being young once those events wrapped up, my co-worker and I met up with John for more beer, which eventually lead us over to TC Lions Pub in Coal Harbour. Out on the patio for oooh about 4 hours we managed (barely) to polish off one of their 4 litre jugs of beer. It was a warm, clear evening so aside from being filled with pale ale we all managed to stumble home okay.
Saturday morning John went to work for CFOX again and I had the house to myself (this is a rare occasion for us Bollwitts, really). I decided to go get my hair done at our favourite little place on Denman.
About a year ago John was looking for somewhere to get a cheap haircut and stumbled upon Envy. Since then we’ve become loyal, regular customers and really enjoy the relationship that we have with the owner and head stylist, Minoo. Although I certainly don’t go as often as I should, she’s so talented and gives the best haircuts – for men and women, no matter what you put in front of her. My hair was just getting WAY too long and shapeless, so she gave me some advice, a fantastic colour job and the awesome haircut followed. I’m SO happy with it I said I was going to blog about the place – so here it is. It’s hard to find a stylist that not only has reasonable prices and knows what to do with your hair, but the atmosphere of the studio is warm and lacks the attitudes of anywhere else in the downtown core.
Quick info about Envy Hair Studio & Esthetics: Located at 730 Denman [Google Map], open 7 days a week from 10:00am to 7:00pm and Sunday from 12:00 to 5:00pm. Call ahead and make an appointment (604-602-9880). They do hair (cut from $17, colour, highlights, extensions, updo’s etc.), Massages, Nail Care (e.g. manicures $20), and waxing (eyebrows $10, bikini $18 and Brazilians $35) and much much more. Their website isn’t up yet but it will be www.envyhairstudio.com.
Last night we headed over to Corinna and Adam’s as it was her birthday last Thursday and the festivities were ongoing. Drinks were aplenty and it seemed like she was having a total blast, which was really great to see. By the way, if you’ve ever ‘adopted’ a sock monkey from them, be sure to join their “Sock Monkey Army” facebook group and post pics.
Our weekend has ended here, back at home after a train ride in from Surrey. Now I better not write about my dad being that it’s Father’s Day since my Mom is still a little miffed that here wasn’t a Mother’s Day dedication to her. Parents these days eh?
More busy-ness to come this week but hopefully we’re going to meet up with some folks from England (fans of the podcast) who are in town visiting. Which reminds me, I really need to keep up to speed on my posts since if it weren’t for blogging we wouldn’t have gone camping last weekend or had any plans last night.
