Seeing a Fresh View of Familiar Things

I love returning home every spring because it's like seeing the area with new eyes.  After four and a half months away, we can approach our own environment like tourists.  People who never leave a place might say that they love where they live, but familiarity leaves them without fresh comparisons.

Today, Jay planned to visit the Bonsor Community Recreation Centre in Metrotown.  He generally goes on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Friday for a workout during senior hours at the gym.  Getting there is easy as he catches the SkyTrain at the foot our building at Columbia Station in New Westminster.

Today, I went to Metrotown with him just for the ride.  The SkyTrain costs next to nothing for us as seniors.  I enjoyed the 10-minute elevated train ride.  As Jay couldn't make good bus connections because of the holiday schedule, we walked towards the community centre through the mall.  I walked most of the way there with him and checked out the larger Walmart anchor store.  I didn't find anything and returned home.  The day was a bit dark and a little cool.  However, I didn't mind much as I immediately went to the hot tub in our building upon returning.

Cold and Drizzly

One good thing about the weather in Vancouver is although we leave from November until April for retirement winters, we really don't have to miss out on typical winter weather.  It's 11°C degrees yet again today and raining.

On Fridays, I usually walk uptown for a little exercise.  It didn't look as though that would be enjoyable in the rain.  So I took the 9:53 SkyTrain with Jay to Metrotown.  They leave every three minutes but we know this one comes from Braid and is never completely full.  While he went to the Bonsor Recreational Complex (gym) near the station, I walked directly into the mall. 

I didn't check my Fitbit to see exactly how far it is from the station to the other end of the mall.  I walked to the far end, to the now shuttered area of The Bay. I returned through the food court on level 2 back to the SkyTrain.  At the present, at lunch time, I've walked 4.6 km.  I estimate the mall walk must have been about 3 km of today's present total.

Oh, and for the first time, I went into a fast-fashion, Canadian clothing store called Urban Behavior.  I bought a white, light-weight, linen shirt for hot summers.  Now, I'm waiting for one.

Getting to the Mall is Easy

Yesterday, here in my journal, I was discussing the convenience of taking the SkyTrain to the downtown Vancouver Waterfront. Today, we took transit less than half that distance.

   

The Metropolis at Metrotown is British Columbia's largest mall. In fact, it is positioned as the third largest in all of Canada. When taking a SkyTrain from the station at our building, a trip takes only 12 minutes. The same trains running towards the Waterfront every three minutes go through Metrotown in Burnaby, BC.  We took transit to the mall and back.

   

We took transit because we didn't need to do regular grocery shopping today. We have only a couple of weeks before we head off for a month of travel in the Balkans. So, there is no need in stocking up on perishable items. 

We got some vegetables at the T&T Supermarket and staples like milk at the Canadian Superstore in the mall. We also looked around its Food Court. We found that the price of lunches were about 30% cheaper than in Las Vegas last weekend.

 

Parking with a View

It didn't seem like a Thursday.

   

Yet, we did the usual Thursday things which included a bit of grocery shopping. The photo above was taken on the roof of the uptown mall. It's looking towards Burnaby's Metrotown.  A few years back we discovered there's a lot of parking on the roof of Royal City Centre that is never crowded. There's a spiral ramp that we now use a few times per week.

Just 7.2 Kilometers from the Apartment

We almost never visit the Metropolis at Metrotown. Its 1,783,005 sq ft makes it the largest mall in British Columbia.

      Metrotown SkyTrain Station / Inside the Metropolis at Metrotown

As the weather looked bleak early in the morning, we decided to take the SkyTrain to visit. The SkyTrain runs by the basement of our apartment complex. Just five stations away and in about 10 minutes, we departed from the train. 

We had no real reason to visit. We did buy a couple of items in the T&T Supermarket and a few from the Canadian Superstore. It was nice just to get out of the apartment. As we go to the mall infrequently, it is interesting to see the shoppers and stores.

A Deer Lake Outing in Burnaby

 It was the first cloudy day in a while, but that meant it was not too hot to be outside.

We met friends at the Metrotown Mall in Burnaby.  We converged at the Canadian Superstore at 11:00 am from Richmond, downtown Vancouver, and New Westminster.  Our plan was to buy picnic goodies and head to one of a number of nearby parks.

However, we ended up eating a really early lunch in the mall's T&T Supermarket, an Asian grocery store.  There was a small area with tables inside. 

We, then, drove just a few kilometers down the hill and stopped at Deer Lake.  As you can see from the photos, we walked around the small lake.  The path was about 4.5 km but it is a very easy walk. 

 

 

After getting back to the car, took beers out of the cooler and sat at park tables.  We shared the area with a lot of baby goslings and their overprotective parents.

As we'd started the day at the largest mall in BC, we decided to head back up for some late afternoon coffees.  The food court and the whole complex seemed pretty crowded.  However, this is the Victorian long weekend in Canada.  Tim Horton's coffee seemed appropriate.

 

Jay and I got back home after 6 o'clock in the evening.  I might be sore as we walked a little over 12 kilometers today!

A Rain-Soaked Thursday

I never thought that we would ever have much, even vaguely, in common with mall rats. 

However, today is 8C and there's a rainfall warning in effect. So, we decided to go to the Metropolis at Metrotown.  The largest mall in British Columbia offers plenty of indoor space in which to walk around, even if one doesn't enter the majority of the boutique shops.

Metrotown's Mall is just 10.4 kilometers from our apartment and a quick and easy drive.  I feel no qualms about driving around on non-crucial errands nowadays.  My EV plugs into our provincial grid which is more than ninety-five percent energized by hydroelectric power.  Therefore, our resource of abundant, falling water got us to the mall and back.  Let the rain continue!  

While walking around we did hit the Asian market, T&T.  We only bought a few vegetables.  Oh, and the fresh milk hadn't been put on the shelves, so Jay went into the mega-location of the Canadian Superstore.  He got our two-liter carton and ensured that it had the max two-week expiry.  We find we use much less milk than we used to.

    

The Mall ... on a Such a Nice Day?

Today, Jay had a noon appointment at ICBC in Burnaby to get a replacement ID. That organization is in charge of automobile licensing and car insurance and registration. They also provide cards used as provincial identification for those without drivers' licenses.  Jay's new one will be valid for five years.

 

 

The nearest ICBC is inside the Metropolis at Metrotown, the largest mall in the whole of British Columbia.  We drove there early just to give us a little time to walk around.  I wondered how much COVID-19 has changed the landscape of shops and stores.

It was quite busy for mid-day on a Wednesday.  I love the mall's underground parking as a well-designed labyrinth of spaces exists under the whole complex.  We parked right near the ICBC and Jay got in line a bit early and had had his photo and exited before his appointment time.  This was near the mall's food court and we took a look.  We found no fast food exciting enough to actually commit to eating even though it was exactly noon.

The drive back took about 15 minutes.  Wow.  Another day that's so nice!

 

1988: When One's Selfies Were Taken by Others

Today was grey and cold. It was quite unlike yesterday, but not all that unusual for a Victoria-Day Long Weekend in BC. 

We wanted to walk a little, so I thought of the idea of going to Metrotown Mall, about 10 kilometers from our place. I think it is the largest mall in British Columbia. First, we parked in the maze of lots under the mall. Our closest door brought us right next to the T&T Supermarket.  We generally visit the supermarket chain's branch close to us in Surrey.  However, today's has a much more authentic feeling as there is a very large Chinese and Asian community in that part of Burnaby. Although the products are the same, the aisles feel crowded with a much more Asian vibe. Jay was able to pick up some good quality pandan and curry leaves. We are now partial to goji berries with our evening snack of nuts and picked a large packet and a few other items. They also have a great takeaway food section and we got a container of Spicy Chicken with Chili.  I didn't take any photos today though. 

In the afternoon, I did hit one more pile of old snapshots. I swear I will keep at this chore until I have scanned and completely ripped up every paper photograph in the house!  Today, I tried to choose a small pile and found 1988. It was the year I was working in Dammam, Saudi Arabia. My teaching job was with cadets of the Royal Saudi Naval Forces. I was a teacher there for exactly one year and after completing my contract, I moved to a different job in Bahrain. Today, I've picked four pictures from that time and place to include today.  Let's see, where's the calculator?  One-third of a century ago, in 1988, I turned twenty-nine years old.

 

A Few Weather Spark Charts

Today, we retreated to the Metrotown Mall again!  Us? 

We went to get out of the apartment and walk around in a smoke-free environment. Today, Vancouver can hardly brag about officially having the worst air quality in the entire world. The winds from the south bringing the west coast wildfire smoke into the province are due to shift this weekend.  Hallelujah! One thing we used to be able to count on in British Columbia is clean air. 

Speaking of air, I have included a graph. It shows average January air temperatures, not cleanliness. They may look warm for Canada.  However, I have also included a second chart to show the same information for our planned location during January 2021.  All this data can be found on Weatherspark.com.

   

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New Westminster, BC, CANADA

   

Our Probable Location

In the top chart, 1°C and 7°C are equal to 34°F and 45°F respectively.

On the bottom, 18°C and 28°C correspond to 64°F and 82°F on the US scale.

 

Burnaby's Deer Lake Park

It was a sunny Friday and we asked ourselves where we'd like to go for a morning walk.  Jay suggested Deer Lake because it is less than 7 kilometers from here.  It felt like a familiar road because I used to travel Canada Way to get to the BCIT Burnaby campus for many years.  However, we seldom need to go that route nowadays.

We'd walked at the park many times, but had never made the complete loop around the lake.  The far end of what used to be part of the lake is now marshland.  We didn't walk all the way to Willingdon, but just crossed around the end of the lake proper.

 

It was pleasant weather as the breeze was still cool in the wooded areas.  Some folks, but definitely not hordes, were out on the trails.  Now that we're retired we prefer discovering the great outdoors on weekdays as there are far fewer crowds.

Burnaby Lake is peaceful and seems, at times, miles away.  However, the continued construction around Metrotown is merely a hop/skip as witnessed by the looming residential towers in the background of some photos.

 

  

Once we saw a coyote when walking at the lake.  Today, however, we saw mainly birds.   Our loop was only around four kilometers according to my Mi Band.  So on the way home, we topped up our EV's battery to 80% at Queen's Park in our own city.  We were plugged in only 16 minutes.

I am glad we walked where we did.