Sangria to Grizzlies

Finally....a picture of the stage at Bard on the Beach. 

The wiFi in this apartment is not very good so I may not be able to post much this week! Fabulous condo, v modern with brick wall, pull out bed (mine!) very comfortable. I have access to the kitchen which suits because I am an early bird and Janice is not! Janice is in a very plush bedroom on a balcony above the main room, I know there is a word for that, God I watch all the Grand Design programmes but it escapes me and the server is not playing ball at the moment so I can't google.

Back to Sunday.

Janice had been itching to get on a bike and cycle round Coal Harbour  I would have liked to have done that myself but as it was the week-end and likely to be very busy I decided against it. I had visions of me wobbling about and ending up in the water, anyway, it was our last day in Vancouver and I wanted to go to Chinatown and Gas town.  So separate ways for a couple of hours. Hopping off the bus (very good,cheap transit system in Vancouver) I skipped down this quiet street with Chinese patterned paving slabs and all my worries about travelling on my own disappeared! I loved it!  I soon found the gardens I wanted to visit called strangely Dr Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden. A Ming Dynasty Scholar's Garden.  I can't tell you how beautiful It is. Very compact and serene.

Now when I was expecting my first child she was going to be Joanna. (Tony Bennett song was very popular)) then we went to see a film with a girl called May-lie in it.  She was beautiful, Alan didn't need persuading he had always had a ' thing' about Chinese women! Lol.  So that would be the name if a girl appeared! And she did!  I didn't think we could hyphenate so it was Maylie. We had no idea what it meant until Alan asked in a Chinese restaurant and they said ' beautiful' we were a bit sceptical but what a lovely idea because she was ( and still is 45 years on).  Now I am getting to the point...... At the gardens I went into a room and a table was set up with boards and water to practice writing in Chinese. There was only me and a young Chinese lad in the room and as I started to have a go he came over and started talking to me. He told me he was here for a 4 month exchange in Montreal. Such a lovely polite lad. He explained about the simple and strict ways of writing. Of course I asked him the meaning of the name and he said beautiful and wrote it for me . This is what happens when you travel alone. I doubt he would have spoken if there had been two of us.

That's how it looks in Chinese!