My Morning Circuit

Last night Claire and myself joined seven other friends to watch Marvel's The Avengers. More on that in a later post. After the movie, we all went for food in one of my favorite restaurants, Café Gloucester, right near the theater we attended. We got home shortly after midnight and played a few rounds of Mass Effect multiplayer, bringing me up to an astonishing N7 rating of 1,001, before tumbling into bed, exhausted, at 3am.

Then waking again at 5am.

And again at 8am.

And just getting up at 9:15am.

At this point I was a little grumpy and grouchy from lack of sleep, but several factors quickly conspired to cheer me up. Firstly, it was beautiful outside, sunny, bright blue skies, with a gentle breeze. Secondly, it was Free Comic Book Day, and my local friendly comic and gaming store opens at 11am on a Saturday. And thirdly, Vancouver's first LEGO Store had opened yesterday in the Oakridge Mall on Cambie and 49th, about 20 blocks north of the comic store.

I decided that today would be a great day for an early morning walk. So I had some oatmeal and a cup of tea, kissed my wife, rousing her from her slumber just long enough to let her know of my plans for the morning, and struck out on my adventure.

I left our place and headed along 70th to the comic store, arriving just after they opened. They were virtually empty, so I grabbed a few of the comics on offer that interested me, namely Mouse Guard and Atomic Robo, stuffed them into my bag and walked north along Cambie.

I don't know what I was expecting given that it was the opening weekend of a LEGO Store, but it wasn't what I found. There was a three hour queue to get into the store! It's heartwarming to see that LEGO is still so popular, but not so much that I wanted to join the queue. Instead, I resolved to return on Monday when all the children will be in school.

I did find the event area where Eric, a master LEGO builder was building an eight foot tall LEGO R2-D2 with the help of the public. It's coming along nicely. The public follow plans on various tables to build, basically, giant LEGO blocks, which then get left in some containers until Eric uses them to continue building the toughest li'l droid in the galaxy! I stopped by and made a block or two to add to the cause.

After resting up a little in one of the seating areas and flicking through the comics from my bag, I headed back out of the mall, taking 49th avenue as far as Granville Street, and then following that back to 71st and home.

One thing's for sure: I'll sleep well tonight.

Missing, Presumed Left Behind

The last few days here in Vancouver have been glorious outside. The sun radiates warmly from bright, clear blue skies. Everyone is outside enjoying themselves and making the most of the early summer. From our apartment I can hear children playing in a nearby park, laughing and having fun.

So I went for a walk. A long walk.

I walked from where we live to Granville Street, putting me near the end of it, by 70th Avenue. I then walked straight up Granville as far as Granville Island. The last street number I passed before hitting the island was 4th Avenue. It took me about an hour. It was glorious. I wore my Rocketeer jacket because, despite it's weight, I was able to protect my neck from the sun beating down on my back the whole way up.

People have been telling me to visit Granville Island since I arrived, and I finally got to. The place was amazing. Markets of every kind sold everything I could need. There was delicious, ready to eat foods, fresh fruit and vegetables to take home, trinkets and kitschy junk to litter the house or send to friends.

There was an entire market called the Kids Market, filled with toy shops that sold all kinds of wondrous items. One sold the latest two Lego Mini-Figure series, from which I managed to get the pulp-era pilot and the awesome and much sought-after Hazmat guy thanks to the help of the staff. Another was filled floor to ceiling with puppets of every kind, from the simple finger puppet to the huge character puppets that made me long to have my Ernie to play with. They even had Fraggle Rock puppets! They had Mokey, Red, Wembley and Boober, but no Gobo. It took every ounce of will power not to buy any, especially Red or Wembley.

I dragged myself away from the Kids Market to explore the rest of the island, finding food and entertainment at every turn. By the time I decided to move on, I was completely lost and wandered in what I thought was the generally right direction until I found familiar territory again.

Getting back off Granville Island, I headed right looking for a popular gaming store, Drexoll Games. I wandered until I got to the end of the line of shops and decided I was on the wrong street (checking when I got home, I was). But it was the best mistake I ever made. Walking along what I later learned was 7th Avenue, I glanced down a side street at a crossing to check for traffic and my eyes popped. My brain misfired and a I stood motionless for a moment. This was parked just a few feet down the street.

Now, for those who may not be aware, "this" is a Ferrari F430. It is one of the most beautiful pieces of engineering and design in the world. As I fell in love with Vancouver thanks to MacGyver, I fell in love with the Ferrari brand around the same age thanks to Magnum P.I. I walked over to it, looking around to see if the owner was nearby and discovered it was parked outside a very nice car dealership. A very nice car dealership. I spent a good ten minutes walking around and admiring this dream machine, taking a handful of photographs and even a short video.

But I never touched it. Not a finger. I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Not that there were burly security men surrounding it, or staff from the dealership throwing me dirty looks. There weren't. I could have just reached out at any point and run my hand across the surface. But I didn't. Seeing it was special. Touching it was something beyond my comprehension. For me, that would be like touching the scales of a living dragon. This vehicle is a dream that I've had since I was a child. It held a magical place in my heart back then, and still does today.

So I just photographed it and walked away. Back out of the shade of the side street into the sun, now a little brighter, a little warmer, a little more awesome.

I headed south as far as Broadway and then walked that back as far as Granville. Once there, my legs finally gave up and screamed at me to take the bus home. I was honestly thinking of walking back still, but it was 6pm by now. I had been walking non-stop for five hours. The sun was still out, but low enough that cool shadows flooded the sidewalks. And so, a little reluctantly, I paid for the bus and headed home.

I got home and collapsed. I did laundry and started to organize my thought on my day and realized something.

Despite the sun, the markets, the toys and the car my day was missing something vital. Claire had stayed at home. I had no-one to share it with. I had no friends. No family. No-one that, in years to come, can say "Remember the day when we..." I miss my friends. I miss the times we shared. I miss barbeques on sunny days, walks in the park, coffee in town. I miss Sunday breakfast and hanging out.

Some days, I feel very alone.