Vancouver vistas
In which we head north of the border and discover a few new things about a city I thought I knew.
If you are wondering why there was no newsletter last week, it’s because we were taking a short vacation to check out the sights of southwestern Canada1.
Our journey started in Vancouver, a city I’ve been lucky enough to visit a couple of times before on business, and really enjoyed. It was a first visit for Gill, in fact, this trip was her first time in Canada.
Woke from an excellent night’s sleep in a very comfy bed, then headed out to find breakfast. We took an early morning walk of about a mile from our hotel to the marina in the Yaletown area to a well-recommended place that specialized in breakfast (Thanks Yelp). I rarely eat hotel breakfast and like to get out early and find a local diner to start the day. Walking a city’s streets as it wakes up and starts to come to life is a great way to explore and get a feel for a place. The diner we ended up at served a great selection of local-themed breakfast foods, with some good GF options too. Although it was a little on the chilly side we sat outside to enjoy the view across the bay.
In general, we are not fans of tours preferring to be independent and flexible with our time, but a few were included as part of the vacation package we’d signed up for.
Turned out the afternoon’s sightseeing bus tour was fun with a Vancouver native tour guide who was only doing her third-ever tour so was fresh and enthusiastic. It was another good way to get an overview of the city and its history when only got a short time in town.
The tour drove through many of Vancouver’s historic areas, both those preserved and those in decline, this was a warts and all tour that didn’t shy away from the less savory side of the city's history. A refreshing change for this type of tourist activity, and we learned a lot in the process.
We stopped at Stanley Park (for the totem poles and city skyline views), the Caplino suspension bridge nature park (very well laid out and spectacular- but no way with my vertigo that I was going on the bridge itself. It was well engineered but too open view wise and too many people having “fun” making it move), rounding out at Granville Island for an early dinner. (I’d stayed on Granville Island on a previous visit to the city and bought back some good memories. )
The tour took around six hours (instead of the advertised five) so we made it back in the nick of time to just catch the check-in desk at the hotel for tomorrow’s train journey just as it was closing.
Then out to find a bookstore (what happened to Chapters? Seems like they got bought by an interior design company and rebranded) and coffee (of course) before settling in our room to relax for the evening.
… we’ll head out on the Rocky Mountaineer train ride in next week’s missive.
Other Stuff
Thanks to the new subscribers who have joined since last week. I really appreciate your interest and support. If you would like to join them you can subscribe below.
I’ve already made an initial foray into Substack’s new NOTES function. Not sure exactly how I’ll be using it yet, but my first thoughts are that I’ll be posting more books and movie reviews, quotes, and the occasional bit of personal stuff not covered in the main newsletter.
Dinner And A Show
Like Beatles history? Want to try a unique food experience? Love Rock-n-Roll?
Join us for a special event in Austin, Texas on the evening of June 2nd.
“Stereo Dinner and Pershing present “Before They Were Beatles” a one-night-only celebration of the Fab Four’s early days with historian and author Alan J Porter. The event on June 2 will feature an intimate multi-course ticketed dinner followed by access to the after-dinner concert with Liverpool’s The Savage Young Beatles.”
Full details at https://www.stereodinner.com/events/beforetheywerebeatles
Brabazon Bits
Not much work on the Brabazon book this week beyond research reading.
For those interested these week’s texts have been:
Bristol - An aircraft album by James D Oughton (Ian Allan - 1973)
Big Wings: The Largest Aeroplanes Ever Built by Philip Kaplan (Pen & Sword - 2005)
Pages and Screens
Books Read in 2023 - “All The Light We Cannot See” by Anthony Doerr.
Maybe I should have read this before I read Cloud Cuckoo Land as you can clearly see Doerr developing some of the techniques he used to such great effect in the later book here. Coming to this second also left me a little disappointed in that it didn’t (couldn’t) match up to the impact of Cloud Cuckoo Land.
Having said all that, this is still an excellent read, and one of the most personal and well-balanced World War 2 stories I’ve read. It puts a sincere and emotional focus on the human experience of war from participants on all sides.
I did find it started to run out of steam towards the end as the climatic intersection of the main storylines was telegraphed pretty far in advance, and the epilogue dragged as we didn’t need to have every plot point wrapped up. Sometimes not knowing what happened next is a more engaging way to end.
Podcast Procrastinations
The Before They Were Beatles podcast passed the 50k downloads mark while we were away. Thanks to everyone who gives it a listen
And talking of Before They Were Beatles, just a reminder that if you’d like to keep up with the progress of the work on the 20th Anniversary edition of the Before They Were Beatles book you can sign up for a subscription to the dedicated Substack monthly newsletter HERE. -
Thanks to the folks who have already subscribed.
Continuing with the Fab Four theme I was delighted to have been a guest recently on the Abbey Road on the River podcast “Something Will Happen” talking about the Before They Were Beatles book and podcast as well as working with The Savage Young Beatles tribute band. You can check it out HERE
The members of the On Her Majesty’s Secret Podcast Rogue Agents team have had eighteen months to contemplate the events of No Time To Die. So has time and multiple viewings (for some) changed their opinions on Daniel Craig’s 007 swansong? You can find out HERE and join us for what turned out to be a deep, and at times, quite personal discussion.
Weekly Web Round-Up
Batman On The Cover - The journey through Batman’s comics publishing history continues this week as we take a look at the comics from January 1968 published in Australia and Brazil.
As always, thanks for joining me for this week’s rambles through the Forest. And don’t forget to sign up for a FREE subscription so you don’t miss future updates.
See you next time
Alan J. Porter
I must admit it seems odd to refer to the area as the southwest when it’s so far north of Texas.