Hand in hand

Banks of newspaper dispensing boxes outside Skytrain stations had become a common sight. Majority of the papers are free and supported by advertising. The industry really took off a few years with the introduction of 24 Hours, Dose, and Metro. Soon littering became a major problem. Solution? Yellow recycle boxes in each and every Skytrain stations.

Where is my plate?

Didn't realized this car's back plate was missing we both pulled out to go around the minivan making a left turn. My first was a temporary license but there was no sign of one on the back windshield. The next thought was may be it is uninsured. Or may be it was simply been stolen. Of course, I'll never know.

Motorola

Seeing these two on a bookcase sure triggered a trip down memory lane. At the time it was the state-of-the-art, a big step forward from its older sibling, the brick, in terms of size, weight, and performance. It even had the capacity to store 10 phone numbers without names. It sure was fun in trying to recall whether Danny's number was stored in No. 7 or No. 8.

Battery life is another issue. Firstly, as an analog phone it drained the battery dry in no time. Consequently us, road rats, always carried a spare plus an automobile charger. Then there is the memory issue. Its capacity deteriorated over time. Every so often these batteries had to be reconditioned which only slowed not stopped the process.

In bulk

Over the past twenty-plus the warehouse-style retail concept has taken root and grew in Canada. In response the traditional supermarkets introduced unpackaged bulk food items. This supermarket is about a year old with a well organized bulk food section.

The Rockies

Looking northward on the intersection of Boundary & Joyce with the snowcapped North Shore mountains as the backdrop. On numerous occasions these mountains had been mistaken for the Rockies by visitors to the city. The most recent misidentification was by a member of the current federal cabinet who shall remain unnamed.

Light runner

Date: February 23, 2008
Time: 10:40 AM
Location: Marine Way, Burnaby
Direction: West

The above vehicle was the third vehicle on the inside lane heading towards Jeffre. The traffic light on the intersection of Jeffre and Marine Way turned red. The driver signaled and switched to the outside lane and continued onto the left turning bay, the one and only car there. He then proceeded to enter the intersection, still a red light, changed backed to the outside lane. Most of us watched in amazement and thought either he was in an emergency or a police officer in an unmarked car.

Anyway, he didn't get too far ahead as the next light, Boundary, was red also. And he waited.

This photo was taken just west of Victoria as construction ahead caused a huge traffic jam. It was here that we discovered he wasn't in a rush nor a police officer as he inched along with the rest.

Hot stuff

Despite the title my opinion on these pepper is their degree of hotness is only marginally above the bell peppers. Nonetheless they are colourful and I like the reflections on the mirror.

Teddies in the window

A few days these two teddies were sharing space with another teddie and the dried flowers. Except the flowers then were directly on top of squashing the poor teddie on the left.

Fatburger

The sign says Since 1952 which makes it almost as old as me but haven't noticed it before. Wonder where its previous location or locations were. Have to make a point of entering the premises next time.

Traffic control

One morning on my way to Richmond came to this intersection where a maintenance crew was working on the traffic signals. The accepted practice to have traffic control personal directing traffic. It is common for a team of two working together. I scanned the intersection while waiting. To my surprise there were not two, not three but four of them. The one on the left was just out of the range of the camera lenses.

Fog

The last few mornings have been pretty foggy especially at the lower elevations that are close to large body of water.

Waiting

A small crowd gathered in front of this Skytrain station. On Sundays operation starts at 7 AM. As you can see not everybody is bright eyes and bushy tail.

Let's compare

This is my second 2 mep camera phone. Thought it would be interesting to see how the two dompare. What is better than comparing two photos at the same location taken under similar conditions.

Here is a photo taken with the Nokia 6265i. It is obvious that the Touch's lenses is the wider of the two/

Umbrellas

Look as if they are having some problem moving these colourful umbrellas despite the fact that we are in Canada's rain capital, Vancouver. At a deep discount of 70% one would expect them to fly off the stand. Apparently this isn't the case.

It was not a Valentine promotion despite the red rose. It was the week before this year's Superbowl and Superstore was using it to promote snacks and refreshment for the game.

Happy Valentine!

Saw this elderly couple walking ahead and on impulse this photo. They seemed to support each other as hey slowly making their way through the mall. Can't helped but wondered whether this is the secret to their marriage?

Vancouver specials

This is the typical houses built on Vancouver, especially the Eastside, after WWII and during the 1950's. Then a new design came upon the scene which maximizes the standard city lot, 33 x 120. These houses have no below grade basement. Just a two level structure and the entrance level is generally considered to be the basement. This design is unique to Vancouver as the houses with outdoor staircases are unique to Montreal.

The next two photos are variations of the Vancouver Specials built in the 1960's and 1970's. The last one is of the ones from the 1990's.

Union building

This is the BC Principals and Vice-Principals Union building on West 10th. The bright yellow support beans and purple coloured wall certainly are eye attracting. So is the huge glass front.

Pay phones

In recent years cellphones had become so prevailing that telephone companies are seriously considering withdrawing from that segment of the market. It was a big surprise to see this bank of pay phone booths inside Metrotown. These belong to Bell may be the explanation for this unexpected because Bell is fighting Telus for market shares in Telus' home turf, no less.

Mist

The temperature had started to rise and the snow started to disappear rapidly. This is the residual snow on a play field. The upper air mass is still cold enough to prevent the evaporating moisture from escaping entirely and resulted in the thin mist.

Starbucks

These are just two of the Chinese New Year related displays I found inside a Starbucks. It did come as a surprise. Sure this Starbucks location is just on the fringe of Vancouver's Chinatown. Nonetheless it was a surprise, a pleasant surprise.

More on the way

With Chinese New Year falling in the middle of the week many organizations and commercial centres are scheduling celebrations this weekend. Above photos are taken at Tinseltown on Thursday, February 7, New Year's Day. As you can see the place was in the process of getting ready for a celebration starting today and runs for the entire weekend.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all and welcome to the year of the rat!

A gold nugget

Today is new year's eve. Wishing everybody a safe and prosperous new year with this photo of a string of fire crackers to chase the evil spirit and a gold nugget as a symbol of prosperity.

Dawn

The dawning of another winter day. This was taken a bit after 7 AM. The contrast between the darkness of the buildings and the much lighter deep blue sky. At the time, to the naked eyes, there was no or very slight difference between the two.

Towers

Not too long ago this entire area was vacant land borders onto industrial sites. The Skytrain ushered in a whole range of high density residential development. These are just a glimpse of the what had sprung up along the Millennium Line.

Birthday gift

Went to a relative's son's one year old birthday party recently. Saw this enormous nicely gift-wrapped box sitting there as soon as we entered the door.


The revealing came after a great meal and delicious birthday cake.

Fence

Snow accumulated on a fence evenly. Then somebody poked a couple of holes.

Snow dolphins

A couple of snow capped dolphins.