Lisboa Bonita

A few random bits of Lisbon

Cais do Sodré

Cais do Sodré

Books! Jospeh Boyden's Orenda and Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep

First, Orenda.  First because I read it first and first because I think it's one of the most important books written in the last decade or so.  Orenda is the Things Fall Apart of the Americas.  Just as Chinua Achebe showed the fast deterioration of a world that seemed to be working just fine in Africa, Joseph Boyden showed us what happened through the colonization of North America.

Most importantly, he showed us the nuanced version in which First Nations people were and were not victims.  They were powerful, independent and in charge, dealing with the French as equals for a time.  Their own choices, because they were actors in their own history and not passive victims, were part of the shifting tides of history.  They took French priests into their villages because they thought it would bring them trading advantages, not because they were forced (or worse yet, fools).  There was no way to no that disease would follow, that European rivalries would exacerbate their own historical conflicts with the Haudenosaunee.

Yes, the French held racist attitudes, and they acted in their own interests, but Joseph Boyden's fictional account does more to help people understand the complexities of history than just about anything out there.  It's brilliant and supremely important.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is not a typical book for me.  It is something of a science fiction touchstone apparently and served as the basis for Blade Runner.  But it's much less dramatic than Blade Runner yet somehow much more pregnant with meaning.  The 'andy' characters are not super-human; they are, more than anything, simply human.  And this is what prompts Deckard to struggle with what it means to be alive.

Read both, but if you have to read one, choose Orenda.

Hi Five - Amazing Grilled Cheese

Urban Explorations: Vancouver’s Tiny Tasty Grilled Cheese

You know when people describe a place as ‘just a hole in the wall’?  Well, measuring about 100 square feet, Hi-Five is pretty much just that with a walk-up window narrower than a car door. Tucked into a tiny storefront at 22 Cordova St. E. in Gastown, you could easily walk right by Hi-Five. In fact, every time we go, someone does just that before doing a double take to see why we’re standing in front of a little window in an otherwise nondescript stretch of sidewalk. If they’re lucky, though, they’ll stop and order because in the case of Hi-Five, small size means big taste.  

Hi-Five’s core crowd is late nights on Friday and Saturday. Though open for lunch Tuesday to Friday, midnight to 2 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays is prime time. Hi-Five’s owner and master grilled cheese chef, Corben, notes that late-night customers are particularly enthusiastic about their sandwiches (which makes up for the long nights). After all, when the bars close, is there any better way to end the night than with a grilled cheese on sourdough?  For the staff of Hi-Five, a good late night moves into the ‘grill zone’ with a steady stream of hungry appreciative customers and lots of music to keep the flow going.  

Corben keeps things simple with six variations on the ultimate comfort food. Things range from the TBT (American cheese and Sriracha) to the Melter Skelter (pepper jack, jalapeños, cilantro, and bbq chips inside). To make things even more comforting, you can get tomato soup and homemade pickles with your sandwich. Corben branched out into pickles because, as he notes, “it’s hard to find a decent pickle in this town.” Dubbed Brine Adams, these babies seriously crunch. Corben made the first batch with a couple of friends and they are almost sold out. If you missed them, don’t fret because he’s making an even bigger batch soon.

This is one of Vancouver’s best values, too. Show off in front of your friends and order the most expensive thing on the menu - $6.

Sky Train Adventure #1: New Westminster

SkyTrain Adventure #1:New Westminster

When you live in a place like Vancouver with so much to offer, you inevitably find your favourite spots and tend to forget all the other things the city has to offer.  To prevent our favourites from slowly ending our explorations of the city, we made a list of all the SkyTrain stations, threw them in a box, and started a raffle. Once a month, we draw the name of a station and head off to explore. The first winner? New Westminster!

Stroll along the banks of the Fraser in the new Westminster Pier Park. It’s 2.5 kilometers if you want to walk all the way to the southern end of the park. Along the way you can rest at the urban beach, take a look at the public art pieces, and enjoy the river. That would give you a 5k walk, jog or cycle to work up an appetite for the delicious food at the locally owned and locally sourced restaurants at the River Market..

Our favourite food options so far:

• Freebird - Choose from two types of chicken (both are amazing) - Thai style roast chicken and Singapore chicken rice. Order the plate and you get a tasty side of papaya salad and rice with your chicken. As two former long-time residents of Bangkok, we can confidently say the food is really good, especially if you ask for extra chiles in your som tum. Go early or you might find the roast chicken sold out.
• Longtail Kitchen - Longtail offers a nice assortment of Thai dishes ranging from standard curries to harder to find seafood dishes. They also have a little market if you want to cook Thai at home.
• Pamola Bakery and Café - Great bakery serving Mexican food including tortas, sopes, and molletes. The sopes and molletes are definitely not standard fare in Vancouver (and definitely delicious).
• Tre Galli Gelato - On a nice day, there will be a line. Don’t be surprised if it’s out the door.

If it’s raining and you have your children with you, take a look at the Vancouver Circus School and/or The River Critters Kids Club,. A perfect time to slip away for a coffee, perhaps?

For adults and older kids, every first and third Saturday of the month, the River Market hosts an artisan market. In addition, there are often artisans teaching their skills, including soapmaking from Thursdays to Mondays with Jolene. Douglas College runs a maker lab that offers community members a collaborative working and meeting design space equipped with 3D printers.

Before you leave New Westminster, don’t forget to check out the World’s Tallest Tin Soldier and the Fraser River Discovery Centre.

Verdict: Totally worth it.

To Get There: Take the Expo or Millennium line from downtown Vancouver to New Westminster. It takes about 30 minutes. Exit the SkyTrain station and walk an easy 3 minutes to get to Quayside Drive next to the Fraser River.

Así debe ser

Bijela Tabija - Sarajevo

Nice

Nice was even better than expected. 

Dad shorts

Winter break 1994

Cali, Colombia 

Catchphrases

These come up far too often...

leveraging learning - deep understanding - improve learning - key understandings - providing opportunities
overarching questions
big questions
conceptual understandings
tap into
bigger connections
leverage
unpack understandings
through lines

Decent bagels in Vancouver

Finally found some good bagels in Vancouver at Rosemary Rocksalt. 

What Air Travel Used to Be: Sally Flies to New York

The Distant Land of My Father: Forgiveness and family

I love that Bo Caldwell acknowledges that we can have crappy parents, but shows that they can also change.  Or rather that our relationships can change and we can find better ways to be child and parent or parent and child.  I was lucky to have good relationships with my parents, but I have known many people who suffered through difficult times with their parents their entire lives.

It's a beautiful and touching story and a really well-crafted relationship between a daughter and a father she worships and then later a mother she comes to really know and love.  In the end the greatest thing her mother gives her is a reason to find something good in the father who let her down.

Bonus: This awesome mnemonic for remembering Los Angeles street names.

From Main I Spring to Broadway then climb the Hill to Olive. Wouldn't it be Grand if I could Hope to pick a Flower on Figueroa?