On the Road

Years ago we decided that we’d make room for some of the visitors to Vancouver during the Olympics. So, on Monday evening, we set out, rolling our suitcases down the hill to the Olympic streetcar. Four minutes later, we got on the Canadaline Skytrain and got off at the Vancouver airport. It couldn’t be easier, and I’d recommend anyone who’s on the fence about the new mass transit vs. a taxi to look seriously at taking the Canadaline, especially if you have luggage on wheels (which the vast majority of bags are these days). About the only down-side was the Olympic crowds, even at 8:45PM.

Our flight on Cathay Pacific left at 2:00 AM, so we had a quiet airport and some time to use the Wi-fi to make some last tweets (and to chat with a friend in Hungary – what a small world this is becoming…but more about that in a later post).

The flight was OK, but very, very cold. Honestly, it was like spending 10 hours in a meat locker; You could almost see your breath. Pam and I had coats with hoods, which we kept up the whole time. There was one blanket per person, and no more. We got in to Hong Kong at their 7:30 AM or so (a day later). After a short layover of about an hour, we boarded another flight to Bangkok. A couple of hours later, we touched down and saw their new(ish) airport, that had been built 3 years ago. It’s a very impressive structure, with caterpillar-like gates connected to a steel, concrete and glass main section. We were immediately met by two young reps. for the tour company (Abercrombie & Kent, who Pam used for her tour of Antarctica). They whisked us through baggage and customs, and we then were handed off to one of the tour guides here, who goes by the nickname Tukke (Tookie). She, and a driver, drove us through the enormous city of Bangkok, to the hotel where we are staying here, the Mandarin Oriental. It’s a very fine hotel (officially 130 years old), albeit old enough that I saw echoes of my grandmother’s taste throughout: the English colonial furniture, the palms and white palm tearoom, the pool with cabanas and teak walkways throughout. It’s well maintained, however, and the Internet in the room was good enough that I could phone my parents back in the states via Skype on my iPhone and it was good enough for them that my father thought it sounded like I was ‘next door’. The view, of the Chao Phraya river (River of Kings) is pretty impressive too:

We managed to stay awake (barely) until about 7:30 PM before collapsing and then waking up at 3, and then 6 this morning. After one of the best breakfast buffets I’ve ever eaten (included with the room – I’ll try and take some photos tomorrow), we returned to the room, and after a short rest, I write this update.
I’m going to try and update the Flickr set of our trip as we go, and it’s here: 2010 Trip to Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.

So, it’s off for a short boat trip across the river to explore some of the city (after we change into shorts to adjust for the heat). Then, perhaps a ride on the Skytrain (Hah, Just like home!). I’m also planning on a massage for my aching shoulder, back and neck, which may be from the plane ride, plus accumulated stress from the past few weeks.

More to come…

Good-bye to the Oughts

While the past year has been good, I must admit that I’m in complete agreement with those like Time Magazine, who dubbed the first 10 years of 2000 as The Decade from Hell. It was a decade that belonged to Bush, whose ascendancy to the White House I have often said was the worst single event in US History. It was for us, a great leap into the unknown, leaving the city of Boston and the country of our births. It was definitely scary in the beginning, but we’ve slowly climbed back, at least in terms of our finances, to where we were when we left, more or less. We dodged much of the housing bubble, and although Pam and I both saw time out of the work force, I suspect that would have been just as bad (or worse) if we had stayed.

After the election of Obama, many people have asked us if we were considering returning to the US. After all, we were ‘Bush Dodgers’, according to some. Well, the ridiculous debate on Health Care reform had us constantly shaking our heads in bewilderment. The fact that the US still fails to acknowledge health care as a human right (like the ones of religion and guns that they extoll so often), is something we’ll never understand. The lack of acknowledgement that the proliferation of guns is causing more and more violence and death throughout America is also baffling to us. Whenever we see people being interviewed on the US evening news constantly refer to God, their belief in religion and other magical thinking also seems further and further from us. Nope, we’re not going back to all of that.

Good-bye to 2009, Then

Looking back on just this year, I do have some events that I’ll remember fondly. Here’s a brief list:

1. The Concert of works for and by Dutch composer Louis Andriessen for his 70th birthday. Back in April, I got to see and hear him (and one of his works), as he reminisced about performances by airport runways and mused that the bass line in Bach Chorale Preludes is “like a cow mooing, interrupting chirping birds”.
2. Riding the brand spanking new CanadaLine all day on my Birthday, and playing Foursquare (and ‘tourist in my own town’) as I went all the way from the south of Richmond to North Vancouver without burning any gasoline (not counting the fuel on the Seabus).
3. Actually not one but several fun and stimulating Meetups for bloggers, graphic designers and Social Media folks. Several were at Caeli’s Pub, which has become one of the most popular social watering-holes in town.
4. An after-hours tour of the newly-renovated Arctic Ocean exhibit of the Vancouver Aquarium as part of the local chapter of the Interaction Design Association (IXDA)
5. Excellent meals at Provence at Marinaside, a tea (thanks to Tiny Bites) at the Fish House in Stanley Park and this past week, a warming Hot Pot (Shabu Shabu) at a new Korean Restaurant, Dae Bak Bon Ga, on 4th Avenue in Kitsilano.
6. The Inauguration of Barack Obama (of course)
7. BarCampVancouver, which was a blast this year at Discovery Parks.
8. Helping to run and participate in UXCampVancouver, the first User Experience ‘unconference’ in the Vancouver area. Many thanks to Karen Parker for providing the leadership and guidance. Next year, it will be even bigger and better. This was, perhaps, the big highlight of the year for me.

And a few sad losses:

1. The loss of Workspace, a marvelous public/private space that hosted many great techie get-togethers. It was the closest thing to a ‘parlor’ that the Geek Scene in Vancouver had. I’m hoping that another will come, but sometimes these things take time to replace.
2. The closing of a bunch of restaurants: Chow (which I reviewed in this blog), O Thai (which was replaced by another Thai restaurant in the same spot that is decidedly poorer), The Fish Café (on 4th Avenue in Kitsilano), and a few others that I forget at the moment (maybe for that reason, they should have closed).

When I look back on 2009, I know that I will sadly have to note that it was the year that Becca Hammann died (see previous entry), and it will be some time before I am used to that fact.

I also note the birth of many babies by friends and relatives, and once again, our orchid is blooming.

My next post, will be about next year. Oh look: the clock says that it’s here already. Well, come in, 2010. Make yourself at home.

Cooking Blues and Elders (Berries, that is)

Since I promised that I would make another blueberry dessert for MJ and the J-Man, I ended up making the last one of the season. For next year (or if you can still get your hands on the last of this summer’s extraordinary crop), now you too can make my favourite old recipe for dessert, Blueberry Buckle:

Blueberry Buckle

(From “American Classics” cookbook, part of the Cook’s Magazine Series)

4 tablespoons unsalted butter
3/4 cup (3 3/4 oz. ) unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4 cup (5 1/4 oz.) plus 1 tablespoon sugar (I prefer organic sugar, if you can find it. It has a cleaner flavour and crunchier texture for the bit on top.)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk
2 cups blueberries, picked over and rinsed

Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 350°. Put butter in an 8-inch square or 9-inch round pan (I get away with a 9-inch rectangular pan) and place pan in the oven to melt the butter.

Meanwhile, whisk the flour, 3/4 cup sugar, baking powder, and salt together in a bowl. Add the milk and whisk until just incorporated into the dry ingredients.

When the butter has melted, remove the pan from the oven. Pour the batter into the pan without stirring it into the butter. Arrange the blueberries over the batter. Sprinkle with the remaining tablespoon of sugar.

Bake until the surface is golden brown and the edges begin to pull away from the sides of the pan, about 40 or 50 minutes. Serve warm, with vanilla ice cream, if you like (we’ve had it within nothing added plenty of times).

This is so ridiculously easy a recipe, that you can do it on a whim. I made it at least 4 times this summer, and look forward to making it again several times next summer. Who said a baked fruit dessert has to take much time or effort?

Other berries…

The other night, we took a bag of Elderberries home from Granville Market. Louis, the Mushroom Guru, who we frequently chat with and get advice about what’s in season, what’s growing, how to prepare things, etc. had them and told us what to do. We boiled them down with a little water, sugar, and apple slices (for the pectin), filtered what it reduced to through some cheesecloth, and we got a thick, purple syrup. Here are a few photos of the process:

Pam tried some of this final cup or so of syrup on vanilla ice cream tonight and said it tasted a lot like blueberries. I’m going to try it in sparkling water to see if it makes good ‘Elderberry Soda’. No, we have no plans of making Elderberry Wine, but we’ve certainly heard about that very old-fashioned potent potable.

Blueberry Custard Pie with Ginger Nut Crumb Crust

I think I’ve probably mentioned at some point or other that while I like to cook (a lot!), the one kind of food that I rarely make is dessert. It’s a combination of several reasons; I don’t have a particular sweet tooth, and in fact, usually crave salty, crunchy things (My weakness is crunchy, salty, melted cheesy things, like nachos, pizza or raclette). In a fine restaurant, you’ll often see me ordering the cheese plate for dessert. I also don’t have a lot of faith in my ability to get the exact measurements that cake baking requires (I tend to work on estimates, a dash of this, a splash of that, a handful of the other…). Finally, my mother admitted that she could never bake a pie. For all of us in our family, pie-making was a black art, a skill that my mother had never been able to gain, being a European immigrant from a place where they made strudel, tortes and palatschinken, but rarely tarts and never pies. Since I learned most of my early cooking from her, I also lacked the ability to make a pie.
So tonight, at the end of the summer, I decided that instead of the usual way that I’ve been dealing with the abundance blueberries this summer, due to the area’s bumper crop, I would throw together a little original dessert creation, which I’m going to call: Blueberry Custard Pie with Ginger Nut Crumb Crust. It’s dead easy, and if you also have some of those blueberries (or strawberries, bananas or other fruit that goes well with custard), this might be a good way to use them.

Blueberry Custard Pie with Ginger Nut Crumb Crust

For the crust:
1 package/roll of McVitie’s Ginger Nuts (their version of Ginger Snaps)
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small pieces

For the filling:
3 tablespoons Bird’s Custard Powder
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup water
2 cups fresh blueberries

Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 350° . Crush the cookies in a food processor (or put them in a bag and hit them with hammer, if you haven’t got one).  After most of the bigger pieces have gotten broken down (about 10-12 pulses), add the butter, and process for another 15 seconds or so. Butter a pie plate and dump the crumbs onto it. Press it down on all sides so that it’s even. Bake in the oven for about 15-20 minutes, but be careful not to burn the crumbs.Let cool.

Make the custard: Put sugar and custard mix in a pan, and slowly wisk in milk and water. Bring to a full boil while stirring nearly continuously (custard will thicken as you cook it. This is essentially the recipe from the side of the can.). Let cool, covered, to just over room temperature.

Pour the custard over the crust, and top with the fruit. Serve after chilled. Resist the urge to eat it right away or the custard won’t let you cut nice neat slices. Which may or may not matter to you.

The Finished (and partially devoured) Pie

This is about as homely and ready-made as I ever get (Custard from a mix!? Cookie crumb crust!?) and has a 1950s-English-household feel to it (not surprising, given that 2 of the ingredients in it are British). However, I have to admit that it does taste awfully good, since the molasses and butter in the crust taste a bit like toffee, and the custard and blueberries go well together. While I don’t plan on making it for company, it is probably going to show up on the dinner table next summer, especially if we are getting as good a blueberry crop as this year’s.

Cold Season and Another Try with FontKit

I haven’t had a cold in quite a while, so the one I have now feels particularly annoying. It’s not as if I’ve forgotten what a cold is like, but I think you can get used to them, when you get them more often (and I’m sure I did suffer from frequent colds- nearly every few months or so when we lived in Boston). It’s a rainy day, and this is Cold: Day 2 ( which means, runny nose, sneezes and a little less energy), Cold: Day 2 is always easier for me than Cold: Day 1 (sore throat, runny nose, feeling like crap). Hopefully, this cold will progress at the usual rate, or maybe even faster.

It’s Labour Day weekend, and although I do have a contract I’m working on, I do have the luxury of not having to work very much this 3-day weekend. This holiday falls on the last weekend of summer and ushers in School, Work, and general ‘Lets-Get-Down-To-It’ sort of things that we associate with the Fall season. We’ve had a spectacularly sunny summer, and it really was extraordinary, with months and months of sunshine, sunshine and more sunshine. That was unfortunate for those people who had to deal with wildfires to the East of us, but for those of us in the city or near the water, July and August have been a rarely interrupted succession of one beautiful day after another. Does this mean we are in for some weather comeuppance?  Will we see a January and February monsoon, or worse, lots of snow, like last year? Time will tell, I suppose. What I can say for sure is that for the first time in ages, the rain that we have (and there has been a little of it), is falling on a weekend. Rainy weekends hold their own charm for me; you don’t have to feel guilty about indoor pursuits like movies, TV, blogging, listening to iTunes or even cleaning up the place. I’m not missing any precious hours of vitamin D harvest, and it can be nice to be cozy, wrapped in a blanket, snoozing through some of those sniffles.

The end of the Summer really began a couple of weeks ago when Pam and I once again went to the PNE, which is in its last weekend right now. While we missed Dal Richards, (Canada’s answer to Guy Lombardo and Glen Miller and a living legend, still performing well into his 90’s), we did make it to see many of the animals (and on Opening Day, there are many of them):

The Opening Day crowds, brought out by the perfect weather were large:

We chatted with an old friend at the Home Improvement Pavilion, ate some of those famous little donuts:

and Pam got a bargain of 4 ears of roasted corn for the price of 1 (the line was so long, they were getting behind and she got a plate of not-quite-good-enough-for-1-serving ears):

We also went to the ‘Marketplace’ where you see all of those demonstrations of everything from Shammies to Blenders and ended up getting a Smart Living Steam Mop. We’ve since put it through it’s paces on our carpets, wood and tile at home and while it does not perform miracles, it does work pretty well, and we hope it will help us keep the place a little cleaner. We still do need new carpet, but that will hopefully come in the next few months or so.

So, with the season now clearly coming to an end, it’s time to return my attention back to this blog, which I’ve been giving a bit less attention this summer. With that, I’m trying to once again look at the new Font technology that will be coming soon to a web page on your screen…

Squishy Fonts?

I’ve tried some different Typekit fonts, and it seems as if the body text is always looking a bit squished. I’m convinced it’s not the fonts themselves, but the metrics I’ve specified on the original Georgia font (which is what older browsers see when they view my pages). I’ll keep at it, but for reference, here are the fonts as they appear on the TypeKit Editor page:

As you can see, the new font, Luxi (Sans and Serif) are not supposed to be that squishy, so I’ll have to work on the original CSS (and do so without ruining the look of the page for older browsers. Backward compatibility without messing up the new fonts is going to be one of the challenges for us using these new fonts, I guess.