Small Spaces, Secret Projects and Sundays

The word of the week is pernicious.

July 1 - Happy Birthday, Canada!

Although I worked today, it was actually rather nice. Being a short shift of only five hours meant that I could not only start work later in the day due to the holiday hours but also head home in the early afternoon. Quite a good combo for being able to get outside and enjoy the incredible summer weather this week.

Canada Day today was particularly gorgeous. I spent a few hours outside on the patio down at Moka House just soaking in the sun and enjoying the uncommon novelty of having a Monday afternoon off early. Canada Day for me tends to be a low-key celebration, especially since I moved out Vancouver Island; I remember being at quite a few barbecues over the years but I haven't been to one yet on Canada Day since I arrived here in Victoria. Although it's probably healthier for me, I still miss them.

The Human Flag grows larger again this year!

In the late evening my sister and I headed down to the Inner Harbor to see the fireworks just after 10 PM. The usual crowds that gathered and for some reason this year there were a lot of rowdies running around yelling their heads off, despite a heavy police presence which included a searchlight equipped helicopter tooling around overhead. I don't recall from previous years there ever being a prominent drunken component to the celebrations here in Victoria and I hope I don't see it again. The family atmosphere and general good cheer was overshadowed at times by a lot of loudmouth idiots yelling expletives  at each other while avoiding the notice of nearby officers.

That nonsense faded once the fireworks went off and all eyes were on the sky. I recorded the sky flowers with my Flip Video, though I really shouldn't use my SIII phone to capture them in their full glory despite its lesser performance in the dark:

July 2 - Go East!

It's a new month, with new challenges.

The challenge right now is to get myself to Ontario in less than three week's time.

So far, things have come together rather unexpectedly and in a nice way towards that goal. Enough so that I am more than halfway towards the funds I need to assemble to get on a plane to wing eastward for the last week of July.

The plan is to spend a few days at the cottage with my group of very close childhood friends. We plan  to celebrate our 40th birthdays together, as we all turned( or will turn )40 this year. It's a wonderful idea and I'm doing everything I can to get myself eastward to see them, as it's been several years since I've traveled to Ontario and I feel that this is an extraordinary impetus to do so.

I wish my friends and I had thought to do this 20 years ago. It looks cool.

Ruminations and thoughts about being friends with someone for many decades also crosses my mind of late. I think it says something amazing about a group of people who can remain so close despite distance and differences, to grow from children to teens to adults and yet still maintain close contact. To be friends at such a level that no time seems to have passed since we last talked, though it may be an interval of months or even years. The essential core of the people we knew as children are still there inside and I believe that with friends like these, I will be just as close to them 40 years from now.

July 3 - Farewell, Hannalore

Growing up, I learned early that I loved books.

One of the places I loved to find books at was at Hannelore Hedley's bookstore downtown. It was a wonderful place: a house filled with books from floor to ceiling and wall to wall. I discovered it in my early teens and went back whenever I could afford to buy at least five or six books at a time. As of last year, she celebrated 40 years in business - a good number.

Inside those walls, books lived and breathed shoulder to shoulder on every available surface. Many of the books were quite rare or quite old or combination of the two. I of course was only interested in the fiction section, tucked around the corner by a staircase but fortunately right next to a bright window. I would dig through the stacks to find new books that I hadn't read yet and secretly cheer that the prices meant I could get a few more each time that I could anywhere else.

Hannelore herself was a wonderful lady, very proper and polite and always kind. During my university years, she generously donated many books to the annual English Club Book Sale, which always made a huge difference to the success of the club. In my later years, I didn't go by as often anymore but I did have the pleasure of running into Hannelore a few times over the years in various places. Again I was struck by what a gracious and gentle person she was and the news of her passing this week saddened me. I knew that we will not see her like again, nor shall her bookstore feel the same without her sitting behind her desk, in a place she had made herself all her own.

July 4 - Giant Monsters!

One week from today, Pacific Rim will open in theaters.

Lately, I haven't been seeing all that many films during their opening week, as I like to let the crowds thinned a little before I stuff myself into a theater with hundreds of people.

However, I may make the exception this week.

Any film with gigantic robots kicking the crap out of giant alien monsters and made by Guillermo del Toro of Pan's Labyrinth fame is one that I have to see soon as possible:

There have been any number of films of Japan with giant robots and giant alien monsters, but that John Wright is firmly fixed on the campy side of the fence. I will be hoping that this film will in essence jump the fence and take a solid if not quite serious look at the genre being capable of a lot more, beyond special effects. It is a subgenre of science fiction that I'd like to see more of, as I have a weakness for giant robots in general that are not directly out of Japan.

Plus, I'm off Thursday and Friday this week so I can not only wait in line but go to a late show for a midnight opening. The very thought is enticing and I may not sleep tonight.

July 5 - Lofty Goals

Small houses are really coming to the fore nowadays.

Vancouver seems to be leading the pack, with quite a few small – style developments in the works. The working term for small apartments looks right now to be calling them 'micro-lofts' even if they are not a loft style. Given the dense urbanization that Vancouver has undergone in the last decade, with a lot of infilling and high-rises going up, it only makes sense that things now are going microsized. Given that home ownership has risen far outside the reach of the average working couple, it's refreshing to see new ways emerge for people of modest incomes to still be able to own a home instead of only renting.

Fortunately, that means other nearby communities are taking notice of the trend, including Victoria. There's a micro-loft development now underway here in Victoria, right next to the old Johnson Street Bridge in the heart of downtown. With living spaces ranging up to 400 ft.², there's not a lot of room but for those who lived frugally and efficiently, it's all the space one or two people will need to live in.

Sure, the perspective is from a corner, but it's not a closet...

The major factor of course, is cost. With average-sized detached homes here in Victoria selling for a price well over half a million CAN dollars, home ownership is only a dream for many. However, the cost of the average micro-loft is only around $150,000, well within the reach of people with average paychecks and not too much debt. I for one would seriously like to look into this type of home ownership, not only for the fact that it looks like the market will likely be heating up and they will retain their resale value. The icing on the cake is that the building plans to have no restrictions on rentals, meaning homeowners can decide to rent the units should they prove to be a popular draw.

One has to get on the property ladder somehow if one wants to get ahead in that fashion and these seem like an excellent way to do so. Admittedly, the real estate market slump of the last five years makes me cautious but the thought of owning rather than renting has always been on my mind despite my inability to fund such a dream.

For the time being, that is.

July 6 - Secret Project???????????

Today I learned about something extraordinary.

So extraordinary, that I'm going to be spending the next few months working on it, in secret. Well, sort of secret - once again the ball rolling I'll let a few people know what I'm up to and see about getting some feedback. As you can guess, it's a writing project and it has me so excited that I can hardly write about it right in this very blog entry.

Suffice to say, it's playing for the big leagues. It's also something dear to me when I grew up and I'm going to give it my all to ensure that I have a shot at success in this endeavor.

More on this as it develops; stay tuned!

July 7 - Gaming Sunday!

After another short day at work, I headed home to get a few things done. Tidy up the apartment, get some snacks into place and clean myself up from the day's efforts. Why, do you ask?

Because I'm hosting the first-ever board game night at my place!

Five friends and I played a game of Zombies!!! starting around dinnertime, with the usual beer and pizza at the ready - not to mention a few potato chips for snacking in between either of those.

This game, like so many other good ones, is all about messing up your friends!

It was a really fun introduction to the game and I was extremely pleased with how much fun we all had. In fact, the game went on for so long that it was well past the four hour mark when things started to draw to a close. There was much laughter and gentle recrimination as we each tried to subvert the endgame by blocking other player's moves towards the finish - all in the spirit of the game, of course!

I'm hoping that tonight is but the first of many boardgame nights that I'll be hosting here. The wonderful part is, we have the sky lounge upstairs which can hold several dozen people if things grow larger and it's the perfect space for gaming. We'll see how the next few months ago as to how many people want to game; I for one really want to play a few games of Catan, which I've never played before and have heard so much about.

Who knows? We may end up playing a game of Axis&Allies one night!

That's all I've got. Work's been very tiring this week, so I'll catch you all next time - I need to catch UP on my sleep and get to bed now!