This small place is tucked away on Denman Street, amidst a multitude of other restaurants. I might never have come across it by chance, had I not picked up a book that referenced it.

This place does not have the hype of some of the other more popular brunch places and thus will spare you the hour-long waiting lists. I visited around 1 in the afternoon on a Sunday. It has about 10 tables, half of which were empty.

The place definitely has an older feel to it, but I liked the quiet and the space. It was opened in 1977 by a french chef.

I ordered the Pacific Egg Benedict. It was presented very nicely and came with a small green salad and french fries. I enjoyed every bit of this simple brunch! The salad had a wonderful vinaigrette dressing and the 2 eggs each came on it's own yummy bread with salmon and asparagus. Fries were also very tasty.

This brunch plate was a reasonable $12 and so I would definitely come back to try more dishes when I'm in the area.

Usefulness

Oh, where has Anne Marie been all this time? This is my new favourite author. I came across her through a reference in another book and I couldn’t believe I haven’t discovered her earlier. This is the first book over 500 pages that I have finished in a long time, savouring every word. I usually get tired of either the subject or the author’s writing style. But not this time.
It is not only Anne’s story that captivates, nor the characters that become so real and human, it is also the seemingly simple sentences and expressions that paint a picture of a family throughout 3 generations, living in the early 20th century in Canada.
The sometimes dark and surprising turning points add to the drama, but Anne manages to still keep it believable, as though a new acquaintance is telling you a true story from their far away home town.
Anne further entices the reader by letting them see the same events from multiple points of views, sometimes a bit delayed, adding dimension to the already intriguing story.

Usefulness

I picked this book up because I like the idea of clear, to the point communication, just like the author, but found this book one-sided. It seems it was written to poke fun at the trends for jargon words in the business, but did not offer many alternatives or suggestions on how one could help improve themselves and others.

Half of this book’s content is written to entertain with elaborate sarcastic jokes and a lot of statistics and facts, which I often found to be amusing but useless when considering the book’s goals. For example, it offers graphs of the usage of the word 'transparency' in various industries. It also has numerous graphs showing an increase in usage of a specific jargon word over time. We use certain corporate words more than we did before. I get it. But I’m sure there are other words whose usage has declined.

I agree with the premise of the book and also find excessive use of jargon and car analogies in the work place meaningless and boring. It would benefit everyone if we were more aware of how we choose to communicate and strived to improve. However, I would argue that a moderate usage of the latest business words in fashion is not that terrible as, business or other type of jargon, languages constantly experience change as new words are created and new trends arise.

I did, however, found the comedy bit on audio conferencing in the work place in Chapter 2 hilarious.

Usefulness

Beyond the Rack is one of many sites that post daily deals on clothes of various brands.

These will often be discontinued styles, but not always. That's why it's good to do a quick google search before you buy just to see what other sites are selling a particular piece for. I have found that prices have not always been the cheapest.

Another thing to note is that although you would buy a particular prodcut from the site directly, these types of sites take forever to ship, often 3-4 weeks. And just as long to process returns.

Shipping charges are generally $10, which is not the cheapest.

My main dislike for this site - they don't have the trendiest clothes. For that, I like Hautelook better.

Usefulness

I was in the Maple Ridge area one day and came across this little gem. It's a large research forest that wasn't busy at all during a day on a sunny long weekend. We took a very pleasant and easy loop trail that takes about 1.5 hours to complete. It was a great way to hide from the burning sun in the beautiful greenery.

There are a couple of lakes there as well but we never got to them. It has a picnic area, too.

Note that as one sign there states, the forest does close at 5pm.

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One day, after doing the infamous Grouse Grind, I decided to check out the Eye of the Wind turbine that stands tall on top of the mountain and can be seen from practically anywhere in Vancouver.

I walked up to the turbine and paid $16 to ride up to the top in a tiny elevator. The day was beautiful without a cloud in the sky, but there was also no wind, so the turbine was standing still. There weren't many people there, which I assume is due to the somewhat steep price. A couple of guys at the top are there to answer questions. There is spa-type music inside and a couple of monitors to display information about current wind speeds and the amount of energy generated over time.

In the end, I was rewarded by small gust of wind that moved the blades about 30 degrees.

It would be interesting to look at Vancouver form up there after dark, but apparently they usually close before sunset.

All in all, the views were nice and I enjoyed it. I do, however, highly recommend the free chairlift ride down. It's slow and takes about 10 minutes, but the views and peacefulness of it are amazing!

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