Vancouver: The Chill Life
Vancouver is such a chill city, where people never seem to be in a rush. I'll be spending much of this month in Vancouver with the objective of finishing Little Cream Book: Goodwill Shopping, which AC had started nearly a year ago. I've always had this fantasy of writing a book in an isolated cabin deep in the woods by a lake, somewhere in Maine or Northern California perhaps. This, of course, is pure fantasy. What if the plumbing fails and there's no hot water? What if the electricity goes out? Or worse yet, what if there's no internet access or mobile phone network (scary, scenes from Misery flash through my mind)??!! Reality just isn't all that idyllic. Instead, being somewhere with no social engagements or friends and family nearby is probably as close as I'll realistically get to that distraction-less, isolated log cabin fantasy.
So for January 2008, this blog should be renamed a Little Chill Life. I doubt much will vary from today, which was spent:
1. Reading the New York Times over a cappuccino and bagel in Cito espresso, one of those rare instances where I forgo my usual Starbucks even though it's just across the street.
2. Sending my poor iBook to Mac Station to see if it can be resucitated from it's flashing-question-mark start-up state. Even though it will take 3 weeks to fix, I am not stressed. For that, I must be grateful to google and the emergence of cloud computing, which enables me to keep working from any computer with an internet connection since my emails and most recent documents can be found in gmail and even the working draft of Goodwill Shopping is on google docs.
3. Researching fair trade, developing world social enterprises for five, uninterrupted hours. Came across some inspiring organizations such as Agros International and Right to Play's Red Ball initiative, which won't make it into the book but are worthy of mention.
4. Practising Anusara yoga at Yaletown Yoga. They list one of their instructors as Paige, and I wonder if it's the same Paige who just left Pure Yoga in Hong Kong a few months back.
5. Buying Oliver Sacks' new book, Musicophilia, from Book Warehouse, where the staff really do know what they stock and sell. I overheard the guy recommending several books to another customer, so when I was paying for my book, I asked whether he had read any good books lately. He suggested Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. I'd never heard of Philip Pullman or the trilogy, but when the guy mentioned The Golden Compass as the first in the trilogy, I blurted out, "Oh, you mean the Nicole Kidman/Daniel Craig movie! Have you seen the movie?" He had, but of course, found the books much better: "The books have good people doing bad things and bad people doing good things, but the movie simplifies the story with good people doing the good things and bad people doing the bad things." The plot line was a bit confusing, something to do with a girl from Oxford who travels between worlds to stop an oppressive "authority" from cutting off the connection between people and their souls, which appear as talking animals. Hmm...maybe I'll just go and see the movie.
But then again, I have the luxury of time.
So for January 2008, this blog should be renamed a Little Chill Life. I doubt much will vary from today, which was spent:
1. Reading the New York Times over a cappuccino and bagel in Cito espresso, one of those rare instances where I forgo my usual Starbucks even though it's just across the street.
2. Sending my poor iBook to Mac Station to see if it can be resucitated from it's flashing-question-mark start-up state. Even though it will take 3 weeks to fix, I am not stressed. For that, I must be grateful to google and the emergence of cloud computing, which enables me to keep working from any computer with an internet connection since my emails and most recent documents can be found in gmail and even the working draft of Goodwill Shopping is on google docs.
3. Researching fair trade, developing world social enterprises for five, uninterrupted hours. Came across some inspiring organizations such as Agros International and Right to Play's Red Ball initiative, which won't make it into the book but are worthy of mention.
4. Practising Anusara yoga at Yaletown Yoga. They list one of their instructors as Paige, and I wonder if it's the same Paige who just left Pure Yoga in Hong Kong a few months back.
5. Buying Oliver Sacks' new book, Musicophilia, from Book Warehouse, where the staff really do know what they stock and sell. I overheard the guy recommending several books to another customer, so when I was paying for my book, I asked whether he had read any good books lately. He suggested Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. I'd never heard of Philip Pullman or the trilogy, but when the guy mentioned The Golden Compass as the first in the trilogy, I blurted out, "Oh, you mean the Nicole Kidman/Daniel Craig movie! Have you seen the movie?" He had, but of course, found the books much better: "The books have good people doing bad things and bad people doing good things, but the movie simplifies the story with good people doing the good things and bad people doing the bad things." The plot line was a bit confusing, something to do with a girl from Oxford who travels between worlds to stop an oppressive "authority" from cutting off the connection between people and their souls, which appear as talking animals. Hmm...maybe I'll just go and see the movie.
But then again, I have the luxury of time.
posted by 10000miles at 11:53
1 Comments:
Paige at Yaletown Yoga is indeed the same Paige who used to teach in Hong Kong.
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