Little Christmas Blog

Stella reading a letter from Nance in Six Acres

There’s been lots of beer so far. Last week I went out with work people, unintentionally ended up being gooseberry on a (‘non’) second date. Turns out I’m really good at going on other people’s dates, I had a great time. Me and Stell had our own date night exploring more of Gastown, including Six Acres, Salt and Bitter. We sampled cheese plates, found a scotch egg, and persevered with finding beer we really like. 

Done lots of shopping too. Took another trip to Granville Island Market for Christmas treats, and explored the artsy shops; I found another Japanese style stationers (Paper Ya) and drooled in there for a while. I even ventured as far as Dunbar for real Christmas cake and paxo stuffing. 

LOOK HOW HAPPY I AM

Stockings

Christmas Dinner

I was really pleased to be invited to a mulled wine evening, which, followed by a trip to the Irish Heather, began the Christmas season wonderfully. On Christmas Eve, Stell and I went to a Carol Service, which aside from a few tune variations and an embarrassing pop ballad style rendition of ‘Mary did you know?’ , was very cute and festive. Afterwards, we struggled to find somewhere to drink (most places close for the entire Christmas period). We ended up going to the Railway Club which was very quiet, but the two of us had a lovely evening reminiscing about Christmases at home. As we were about to leave, we stumbled upon a small guitar band doing a Christmas sing-a-long, which was the perfect end to the evening.

The view from Vancouver Lookout

Christmas morning was bursting full of Skype sessions and bucks fizz. A bottle of bubbles later, we began the mammoth task of cooking a full Christmas dinner without an oven thermostat. It shouldn’t have worked, and we definitely should have been poisoned, but somehow it did! We had an amazing dinner followed by gifts from all the family. Favourites included a stationary set and library date stamp, a wonderful food hamper, PERCY PIGS, and some fancy slippers. Thanks everyone.

Vancouver FOUR

It’s getting closer to Christmas, and although I’m feeling increasingly more settled, I’m missing the thought of the holidays at home. I wrote my Christmas cards last week, and Stella’s made a ‘Christmas at the Movies’ playlist and has already bought (and experimented with) a tub of mulling spices. Today we bought a Christmas tree, balls, lights and bells and have spent the afternoon bringing the ‘yuletide gay’ to our apartment. I mulled some wine and bought some satsumas (stems on), and have started the obligatory Christmas ‘goobie tray’.  We are also listening to the Glee Christmas album- yes I watch glee now. The list we have made for Christmas food shopping is insane as we’re trying to incorporate both our family’s funny traditions. That means ‘Some like it Hot’ and prawn cocktails, followed by white chocolate cheesecake and ‘Muppets Christmas Carol’. 

The biggest news these past few weeks is our housing drama. We had solved the mice problem and given up on relying on our landlady. But we had a visit from the building manager who was issuing a court order to evict our landlady from the property because she hadn’t been paying her rent. So she’d been taking our money, not paying her rent, and ultimately we were the ones dealing with the consequences. The bailiffs were on their way and we were set to be evicted. Luckily the manager was really sweet, and he’s now our friend. He’s letting us stay here anyway until the end of the month, and I think then we’ll be moving into an apartment downstairs. Phew. It still hasn’t put me completely at ease, and I’ve been relieved coming home each night to find the locks unchanged and our belongings still intact. We’ve had to laugh I suppose, but we can’t believe what a mess we’ve ended up in, and so close to Christmas. 

English Bay

We’ve been exploring a little more. We took a stroll along English bay, which is only a few minutes from our flat. Those familiar with Seaburn will be pleased to learn they have a Boxing Day ‘Polar Bear Swim’ where all the hardcore Vancouver oldies go for a dip. We have also started to frequent what is sure to become our local pub- the Fountainhead. Unfortunately the beer is crap and the use of the phrase ‘patio seating’ is questionable, but it’s super gay and the only thing that feels like a pub close to home. 

 I joined the library and have already ogled the amazing book and film collections. To structure my Vancouver reading I’ve joined a book club (yes a lesbian one), that meets in January. Still haven’t finished the book I came with, which I can’t believe I hadn’t finished the first time round, His Dark Materials (thank you, Karen Eastwood- perfect holiday book!)

These past weeks, we’ve been getting to know new people and working hard at our jobs. We’re doing close to full-time right now, in the hope for saving for a lavish Christmas dinner, and travelling in the New Year. I’ve even fashioned my first latte ‘rosetta’. I went for drinks with work people a few days ago and got taken to the most amazing bar called the Alibi Room, which I liked purely for the fact it reminded me of Friday nights being silly in Alibi, Sheffield. 

Winning Ticket

Oh, and have I mentioned my big bingo win?! We went to a bingo night at a gay club on Davie Street. It was massively cheesy, but great. I was so nervous about winning anything because I knew it would involve being on stage, getting the piss taken by some enormous drag queens. So obviously, that meant I won the jackpot prize. This included a Mini Cooper for a weekend of my choosing, $100, casino coupons, a bath robe, a Mini T-shirt, Umbrella, key rings, torch, thermos cup... As well as the win we had a great night and met some nice people and were introduced to a very trendy, darkly lit bar in the gay village (1181). 

We have managed to venture out of downtown once or twice, but it’s hard when there’s so much on our doorstep. We finally made it to Kitsilano, and the Museum of Anthropology. We learnt lots about the First Nations people and were very impressed by the foyer of Totem poles, which dwarfed the ones we’d seen before in Stanley Park. We also saw an exhibit of photographs taken of clothing that survived the Hiroshima bombing (Ishuchi Miyako). It had been on our to-do list since we arrived, but we felt it was lacking in information, which is definitely weird for a museum. Or at least it made me feel like I wanted to know much more about what happened to First Nations people, and how they live now. 

On another  cultural endeavour I’ve been trying to see some theatre, and finally satisfied this with a production of ‘The Tempermentals’ at the PAL. The venue was unusual in that it was a high rise of affordable housing for people who have dedicated their lives to the poorly paid arts, with a studio space at the top. It was very cute and obviously underfunded, but I really liked the mugs of tea and Kitkats served from a kitchenette in the studio entrance. The play was about a group of men in pre-Stonewall America, who founded the Mattachine Society and were the first people to acknowledge a gay civil rights movement. All these reasons made me really want to like it, but ultimately it was just OK.

MERRY CHRISTMAS