This tea house opened in my neighbourhood just half a year ago and I would not have noticed had someone not taken me there. It has a small entrance and is situated in an area among bridal, furniture and outdoor clothing shops - but with no other cafes around.

Inside, however, it's roomy and quite unique. Run by volunteers, this tea house has a middle-eastern spin on it. Multitude of teas and sweets are available for purchase. This is also where I had my first Turkish coffee in years.

It's a place to relax, read a book, type away on your laptop (free WiFi) or to chat with the very friendly staff.

The real surprise is, however, upstairs. It's a floor dedicated to meditation. In fact, every Wednesday at 7, there is a free Sufi group meditation session. I loved taking an hour to relax and focus on myself. I was told there is also a small private room that anyone can use at any time if they happen to be close by and feel like meditating. Sweet!

Usefulness

I am all about adventures and so is Bob, the author of this book. At 60, he decided to attend a culinary art school in Vancouver, BC and opens a window into the restaurant business and aspiring chefs to those of us who are not there. Living in Vancouver myself made this book more relatable to me as I know and have been to the places Bob talks about.

In this non-fiction book, Bob walks us through what it's like to live through 6 months attending a culinary school - something many do in order to begin a career in the restaurant business. Bob mixed serious and funny as he vividly described the demanding hours, the grueling work, the challenging tasks of learning how to cook, as well as characters, incidents, and his accomplishment throughout. I felt like I was in that kitchen beside him.

In one chapter, Bob takes us through the process and the effort involved in cooking for hundreds of people while he and his classmates and chefs prepared 375 meals as a volunteer gig for the First United Church.

In addition, Bob shares some recipes and cooking tips throughout the book which I plan on trying!

Usefulness

This is your basic gym. It's not glamorous. It's just there to get the job done. But while that's important, I find the non-primary facilities (stretching area, changing room, etc.) and the overall atmosphere of a gym is just as important.

This gym is cheap and it looks cheap. The space is small and it just feels dirty to me. There is no hot water in the women's bathroom/changing area. In fact, that area is just one small room with broken lockers, a single sink, shower and 2 bathroom stalls. That's it.

I did see a questionable-looking tanning bed in a tiny uninviting space that's opens right into the weight area. I wonder if anyone uses that. There are no steam rooms or anything like that in case you are wondering.

The machines that I've used - treadmill, elliptical, stairmaster - are all decent, although with some out of order quite often or making squeaky noises. Although over the past 2 months while going 2-3 times a week, I have never had to wait to use a machine yet. Small TV's in some areas, but they have to be shared.

Why do I go there, you ask? I needed to find a place to run for the winter months without signing a contract or spending a fortune, while having access to machines without a wait nor a 20 minutes restriction community gyms have. This place has that. Staff is very friendly, which is a nice bonus. They have 2 other locations in Vancouver and have good hours. So this place does have some pluses.

In summary, if you want a great gym, go to Golds Gym. If you want something cheap that works, this could be for you.

Pros
+ no BS
+ friendly staff
+ not too busy
+ cheap
+ reasonable monthly fee if without a contract

Cons
+ cheap and simple, not maintained that well
+ not a great deal of space
+ very basic changing rooms
+ no hot water in sinks
+ dirty floors

Usefulness

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.

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