Sunrise, 8:05 AM, Sunset 4:17 PM. The Winter Solstice has come and gone
Some of the Vancouver bloggers gathered together at Subeez, on Homer Street (I wish I could write that street name without hearing Marge Simpson’s voice, or rather, Julie Kavner’s voice, to be precise) for a little get-together before the holidays. I got there a little early, feeling a little weak as I’m just still getting over a little cold and flu. (I suspect I got it because I’m not used to the particular bacterial soup that is my new workplace. It’s not that the place is particularly dirty — it’s not — it’s that I haven’t yet developed resistance to the bugs that are there yet. This is pretty common.) Rather than go for a brew, I had to settle for some Chamomile tea and honey. It’s a bit of a relief when restaurants can be understanding about these sorts of things. I felt better as people arrived.
It was a small crowd, but we all got comfortable and I think everyone was in a pretty good mood. Despite the lack of sunlight, we all seem to be coping pretty well. The conversations drifted from coming holiday trips to the Vancouver Coöperative Auto Network (which I’ve written about before) — Susie Gardner and Travis Smith think it’s great, so I’m now more inclined to think more seriously about it, having known no one up to this point who had actually joined it, much less recommended it.
For those who didn’t make it to Subeez, the report from here on the venue is: A little loud on the music, but great, funky décor, much better food than Steamworks (and I’m probably not the only one to say that), and a more varied menu with better prices. The service was excellent and they dealt quite adroitly with all of the complications of staggered orders and multiple cheques. We’ll be back there in January. I wouldn’t give up on Calhoun’s, though. That might be good to try in February.
Here are the blogs of the Meetup attendees:
Walter Selent’s Web Page
onomatopeia
Web2
Buzz Marketing witth Blogs
Unvarnished
Maktaaq
DaneBrown.org (in 2 weeks)
I uploaded a few holiday snapshots of us around the table to Meetup.com. The camera flash was pretty extreme, but there’s not much you can do in a dimly lit place. Besides, it was after all, the solstice.
Besides all of the holidays and besides all of the darkness, it’s also that time of year when many of us (myself included) grin and say ‘See you next year!’ at the end of evenings. We aren’t being particularly clever, but it’s fun to say it all the same.