A Perfect Weekend

This past weekend was perfect.

It started off on Friday night, having a few beers with an old friend with whom I hadn’t spent time in a long while.

Saturday morning I was up, bright and early, to volunteer as part of the setup crew for the 2012 Canada Cup of Beer. Two hours spent setting up tents and carrying chairs and tables, while joking around with friends, was good fun.

Setting up the 2012 Canada Cup of Beer
Ryan and Jeremy towing the Telus Building

I then rushed home, assembled a bunch of tools and other handyman materials, bought a few things from the hardware store, and went to my friend Matt’s house to drop them off.

Back at my house by the afternoon, my dad kindly agreed to drive me to Swangard Stadium to participate in the Canada Cup of Beer, where I got to drink very small samples of quite a few beers with friends, many of which were unique and quite tasty (the brews, not the people).

I also got to try a paintball gun for the first time. However, the company running the promo was using rubber balls instead of paintballs, to avoid a mess. I was happy to shoot at the NHL goalies but the guy running the booth suggested I shoot a friend and, for some unknown reason, Tyler immediately volunteered to don the protective facemask and kneel down only a few feet away.

Tyler getting shot by rubber balls

Needless to say, I managed to hit him with almost every shot, and left quite a few welts:

The welts from getting shot by rubber balls

Once the event started winding down, I caught a bus downtown for my 10 year high school reunion, where I got to catch up with a number of people I hadn’t seen in ages. It was great to see how mature everyone has become – what a friendly group! [photo credit: Margarita Banting]

St Patrick's Class of 2002 Ten Year Reunion

By 11pm Jenn, with whom I went to elementary and high school, and I said our goodbyes to the group and headed to a show at the Astoria with two of her friends and my friend Maria joining us.

Dubstep show at the Astoria

Once the show ended around 2am, we all headed to Jericho Beach to enjoy the warm Vancouver summer evening. When we got there, we found a few people and joined them, and soon other strangers showed up and we had ourselves a little beach fire with guitars, singing, and fire juggling!

Fire juggling at Jericho Beach

…not to mention great conversation with interesting people, a few glimpses of aurora borealis, and a beautiful sunrise.

The most impressive musical talent present was this guy, Donny Childs. You can find some of his music online at http://donnychildsband.bandcamp.com/

Donny Childs – “Yeah, You Know” from Chris Anderson on Vimeo.

I managed to get about 7 hrs of sleep despite only arriving home at 6am, and on Sunday went to hang out with my friend Gen. We decided to go for a walk and ended up eating tasty burgers for lunch, before I headed over to Matt’s house and spent a few hours with him and John making precise cuts through steel tubing with the equipment I’d dropped off the day before.

Cutting steel tubing with a circular saw

In a few weeks I expect to post some photos of what we’re making with this steel tubing, and I think we’ll all be pleasantly surprised…

And so ended a perfect weekend. Just the right mix of partying, catching up with old friends, making new friends, listening to music, making music, helping others with their workload, working on our own project, and appreciating all sorts of amazing things around me.

Colin Jack, Beer Expert and All-Round Awesome Guy (1970-2011)

I first met Colin Jack in the fall of 2004, when my brother Dan and I signed up for the UBC AMS Minischool course titled “Beer Tasting.” Three guys were running the show: Colin, Rick, and Zayvin. Longtime friends, they knew how to teach us the science, the art, and the fun of tasting beer. Colin put a lot of effort into Just Here For The Beer, including creating the annual Canada Cup of Beer in Vancouver which has been gaining popularity every year, and regular radio shows on AM 650.

Colin was a good teacher and a good friend, and as a result I took his class three times at UBC, learning more each time. I thought so highly of him that, when I returned from a year abroad in 2005, I hand-carried glass bottles of Beer Lao as a gift for him and the other Just Here For The Beer guys – something you couldn’t find in any beer store in BC at the time. I was lucky enough to volunteer at two Canada Cup of Beer festivals, and attend a third one last summer when I visited Vancouver, and I had a great time at each one thanks to the effort that Colin and his friends and family put into the festival. I had been looking forward to seeing him in three weeks at the next Just Here For The Beer event in Vancouver. I’m sad I won’t get to share another laugh with Colin, but I have a bunch of very happy memories to keep hold of, and am very thankful that I knew him. I’m sure that many of my friends will feel the same way.

He died on the weekend, just 40 years old.

The last class of my third and final beer tasting course, UBC, Vancouver, March 20th, 2007 with Colin on the far right side of the photo:

The last class of my third and final beer tasting course, UBC, Vancouver, March 2007

Colin at the Canada Cup of Beer, July 6, 2008:

Colin Jack at the Canada Cup of Beer, July 6, 2008

Vancouver Courier article about Colin: http://www.vancourier.com/life/Raising+glass+with+heart/4383112/story.html

A July Visit to Vancouver and Bowen Island

During my two week stay in BC, I did stuff and things and so forth, etc. These activities included…

Giving my brother Matt tips as he learned how to ride a motorcycle:

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Going to Tuesday night karaoke at J-Lounge with Denise and Dan, who were awesome on stage:

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Watching Toy Story 3 and seeing Kevin James, of the movie Grown Ups, in the theatre:

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A long sunset walk around part of the seawall and Yaletown with my friend Amanda:

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Attending the Canada Cup of Beer with Stash (not in this pic), Dan, and Lyndsay. Got to catch up with Colin and Rick, the organisers, as well. Rick is on the left of the truck:

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Eating pho at KPXL twice, the second time being a post-glup dich noodle celebration with many amazing people:

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And cycling with my brother Dan to Bowen Island for a bit over a day by the sea, which deserves more than one photo. Arriving at Horseshoe Bay for the ferry, sweaty and tired from far too many hillclimbs:

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The ferry ride to Bowen Island:

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When we arrived on Bowen, the tide was the lowest I can remember ever seeing:

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My brother Matt took the windsurfer out a few times, and had not fallen until I pulled my camera out, assuming he’d fall. It took less than 30 seconds for my prediction to come true:

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The three of us decided to get ice cream in Snug Cove, so we had a ‘race’ to get there. Matt took the windsurfer to Sandy Beach while Dan took the canoe and I rowed Jaro, the half-century-old fibreglass rowboat, across Deep Bay and into the cove. I would have beat Dan by a long shot if I hadn’t stopped to wait for him for this photo op, but I still barely beat him. Matt was still out on the water when we walked over to Sandy Beach to find him, and he had to paddle to shore for lack of wind.

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There were quite a few deer on the property this time. In fact, at one point I counted seven (!) of them altogether in the front and back yards – three adults and four fawns.

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The ferry heading back to Vancouver, with UBC behind it:

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Deep Bay:

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A good place from which to stare at the ocean:

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I found this creepy crawlie, a steatoda borealis, on my bedroom floor in the cabin I stayed in:

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One of the fawns that were running around the property on Sunday:

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Dan and I spent at least an hour in the forest picking berries to give a friend of mine back in Vancouver. We got a whole bunch of huckleberries, salal berries (which is what he’s picking in this pic), and plums – delicious things you’ll probably never see on a grocery store shelf (the plums in question are not the kind you see in stores).

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One of the deer in the backyard as seen from inside our kitchen:

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On the ferry ride back to Horseshoe Bay in West Vancouver, the haze was nearly non-existent so the green trees of the mainland coast actually looked green!

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The cycle from Horseshoe Bay back to Vancouver was much easier than the opposite direction the day before. Dan insists it was the evening tailwind, while I believe it was a combination of me not having any luggage on my bike and having a small coffee on the ferry ride. The lighting was amazing as we cycled along the scenic Marine Drive, through Park Royal, and on toward Lion’s Gate Bridge.

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Views from Lion’s Gate Bridge:

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Dan and I parted ways at Denman and Robson, where for about 3 minutes (Dan timed it roughly) the underside of these clouds lit up like fire:

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On the 13th, Dan and I spent some time at Kerrisdale Cameras testing out extension tubes on my camera for macro photography. This is part of my finger:

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On the evening of July 13th I caught a McDonnell Douglas MD-11 owned by KLM from Vancouver to Amsterdam en route back to DR Congo.

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