Week 4 in Vancouver

Work remains pretty busy out here. There are changes going on at work back in Edinburgh – my line manager is changing in a reorganisation, and discussion and planning around the change has taken a chunk of time. Then discussions with my team about the change as well. I’m not going to go into details, but I think it’s just some formalisation of things that were happening anyway, so it’s very much “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose“, and the only difficulty is that I’m far away, and it means I need to focus a lot on making sure things are communicated clearly.

So, what else have I been doing?

Friday was a haunting day in more ways than one. I’ve already posted a little about my thoughts on the anniversary of my father’s death – it was on my mind a lot. We did find time to go out and indulge in the local Halloween costume shopping frenzy though – it’s amazing how many shops are selling costumes, props, etc. Veronica  found a hat she had to have, I found a great leather mask, and we added a couple of cheap accessories, and combined with things we already had with us (and that were ok for cold nighttime walks). We picked up a couple of small items that combined with things we already had with us, and came up with these costumes to take on the Secret Souls Walk on Saturday.

We spent a lot of Saturday wandering, exploring, looking around at Halloween shopping, etc – then headed home for food in plenty time to head out for the Secret Souls Walk, which was an early evening event.

We dressed up in our Halloween costumes before heading out to the evening event – which meant we had the fun of walking through Downtown Vancouver, taking a bus, and a Skytrain, while in costume. We got lots of amused, friendly smiles – and the odd scared look as we passed people. As we got closer to East Vancouver, more and more people in costume appeared. When we got there it was starting to rain, unfortunately, but that gave us the opportunity to pop into Safeways, wander around in costume, and buy an umbrella. It seemed to fit my costume quite well to have an umbrella anyway.

The Secret Souls Walk is a smaller scale event run to replace the Parade of Lost Souls which has happened in previous years. The event had grown so much that it became prohibitively expensive to run – something that probably sounds familiar to Edinburgh Beltane Society people. So, this year they led people on a smaller, more intimate, walk around the local community, with theatre, music, art, decorated houses, .. all sorts. There was much more of this than I expected – it was amazing how much of a community had mucked in to arrange the walk, set up things on the way round. It was so surreal and wonderful, rather like stepping into Neverwhere, or a Canadian version of it. About half the people going round were dressed up.. and you got much more out of it if you were – other people interacted with you more, so did the performers. The ghost pictured here hovered around me mysteriously for quite some time.
And so many houses done up, or with the residents performing. From the monster houses with eyes, to art installations in gardens, to zombie bands performing on front porches or in gardens, it was such an amazing experience. Not something to miss if you’re ever in Vancouver for Halloween.

More reviews and images: Our costumes, a review, one from a participant, images from Flickr

Sunday was a relaxed day, we got up, had breakfast, chatted to family on Skype, then headed out to Stanley Park to explore, and check out wildlife. The birds here are very different to those at home – we saw chickadees, juncos, and towhees – as well as species of gull we dont get at home, some different varieties of ducks – and of course, raccoons. You can’t really miss the raccoons, as they live on begged food, and make a nuisance of themselves with tourists till they get some. Veronica nearly discovered why you don’t want to hand feed them when one had a go at biting her finger. They just have no fear of people, and the initial “cute furry thing” charm soon wears off.
We also saw a territory dispute between two male swans, and a bald eagle perched on a mid-lake log, fending crows off his catch. On the way back, we met a naturalist who’s very interested in Stanley Park. He’s quite well known locally, largely for being political and upsetting the park board (who apparantly aren’t very conservation-friendly). He has a nice website about Stanley Park which is going to be a great help with identifying birds I see there.

Then it was head home, get some food, then out clubbing at what was really a big, friendly, Halloween party. Lots of fun, but we had to head home early as we were starting at 6am.

On Monday evening – we headed out to Commercial Drive, to meet a long-term online friend for the first time in real life. We had some nice coffee, great conversation, then took a slow walk down Commercial Drive. There are some very interesting shops there, will be well worth exploring again during the daytime. Our friend pointed us at a bus home, to save walking all the way back to the Skytrain – so we ended up on the bus route that goes through the Downtown Eastside. Seeing it at night, from a bus window, is quite an eye-opening experience – the level of homelessness on the street is shocking, there must be thousands of homeless people living on the streets within a few blocks. People stumble and shamble around, obviously intoxicated on drink or drugs. It felt like being on the set of a zombie movie, only a lot more real. It really brings home how lucky we are to be able to sit at home and write about it, rather than ending up living there without any choice. Locals tell me some effort is going in to addressing the problems of the area, especially since the Winter Olympics brought more attention to Vancouver.

Last night we went out for Thai food with people I’m working with out here. Maenam is not a cheap restaurant by local standards, but you get a lot for your money. We had the chef’s choice menu, which between seven of us gave a great selection of dishes. Well, apart from if you were vegetarian – they do struggle there. Thankfully Veronica will eat fish, or she’d have been mostly stuck with salads. They were incredibly good salads though, some of the best dishes on the table. Particularly recommended: banana blossom salad, 8 spice fish, green curry halibut.

This weekend we’re going to Victoria, just to see a different city, and see the islands from the ferry on the way there. We won’t be having the famous high tea at the Empress though, $65 for high tea is just nuts. Especially when you can have it at Baxters in Leith.

Photo galleries: Secret Souls Walk, Stanley Park