May 22, 2012 – This morning was still cloudy, and there was a little bit of water spitting from the sky, but by early afternoon the sky was blue and that fabulous Mediterranean sea was finally showing its true colours. In other words, today was fabulous!

We slept late this morning since we had stayed up late down in the hotel lounge. Not a bar, but a wonderful room with couches and chairs and art books and magazines, where the owner will serve you just about any alcohol you might wish for, and has a good selection of wines that he likes. It was just us, enjoying a bottle of wine in the dim light, and around midnight we took the remains of the bottle up to our room so he could lock up. So we slept in. It’s not like we have a schedule of any sort, and even when we do plan something, we rarely actually do it since something else usually takes our fancy.

A schedule is just a backup plan.

So after breakfast of crusty baguette, fresh croissant with apricot jam, coffee, orange juice, and a madeleine, we set off on foot for Antibes to visit the Picasso museum, maybe. The Chagall museum and the Matisse museum were also on the potential list, but we never made it to either, because we eventually ended up at Fort Carre, where we hadn’t planned to go until tomorrow. But I jump ahead.

We walked on the road near the train tracks, knowing the next stop in that direction was Antibes, so we couldn’t get lost, well, we probably could have – this is “US” after all – but we didn’t.

We came down into Anitbes and ended up near the bus station and then wandered down into the warren of narrow streets and Mediterranean architecture that make up Old Antibes. It felt very similar to many of the shop areas that we visited in the Greek Islands, and as a result, felt familiar. The cobbled streets are far removed from the luxury down near the marinas.

Antibes was founded by the Greeks over 2000 years ago with the name Antipolis. Shortly afterwards it was incorporated into the expanding Roman empire when it was known as Antiboul. With the fall of the Roman empire Antibes was a target of pirates and raiders until the growing power of Genoa removed most of these menaces.

Around the 11th century AD Antibes was a feudal town whose eventual overlord was the Pope. In 1384 it passed into the hands of the Grimaldi family – the former Genovese merchant princes who had now moved westwards to Monaco and Nice – as collateral to a loan that the Pope could not repay. Shortly after this Antibes became the easternmost port of the kingdom of France – at that time Nice was part of Savoy – and thus was extremely important. Over the years, and particularly during the 100 years war, it’s port was continually fortified and expanded, culminating in the Fort Carré and the Port Vauban finished in 1710.

The first tourists arrived at Cap d’Antibes in the 1880s and the adjacent town of Juan les Pins was built at the end of the 19th century. Although it expanded, during the early 20th century Antibes was less developed than its neighbours on the French Riviera and was thus a haven for artists such as Picasso and later Nicolas de Staël. ~ Wikipedia

We wandered in and out of shops, expensive and not, and I found a treasure in a small artist’s silver and stone jewellery shop. A lovely and very unique necklace that I will treasure.

After wandering for a couple of hours, we popped out into the Cours Massena which becomes a bustling market each morning. We were close to lunch and many of the sellers were packing up their goods, but we still managed to buy a couple of Nutella macarons from a seller with a dizzying array of flavours. There were olive vendors with a dozen or more varieties, and a vendor selling potatoes with a selection of 18 varieties. Dozens of types of tomatoes, carrots, and other fruits and vegetables that we are never lucky enough to see in our pathetic stores.

From there we headed down to the Museé Picasso, except that we found that it was closed – like so many places – between 1200 and 1400. So with that knowledge, we backtracked to the Couse Massena to find a spot for lunch. I can’t recall the name, but as we walked along, the busiest (and smallest) cafe seemed like an obvious choice. We have found over the years that the busiest places, and those patronized by locals, are generally the best. And we weren’t disappointed. It was tiny, cramped, and the food was delicious and reasonably priced. I had a crêpe bretonne and a Kir blanc, Kirk had a crepe complête and a rosé.

Then it was back to the museum, the two Japanese women sitting immediately next to us (more like with us) at the cafe were also there, apparently also killing time while waiting. Like good little Canadians we walked up the ramp and stood in line. Eventually we noticed that several couples were bypassing the line and going in, so we went and asked. Apparently the line was for groups/tours. Such Canadians – we saw a line and we automatically stood in it. We were happy to discover that (for whatever reason) tickets were half price today, so instead of six euros each, it was three.

The Museum is located within the Château Grimaldi at Antibes, which is built upon the foundations of the ancient Greek town of Antipolis.

In 1608 it became a stronghold of the Grimaldi family and has borne their name ever since. In 1946 it was the home for six months of the artist Pablo Picasso. Today it is home to the Picasso Museum. From 1702 it became the town hall of Antibes. From 1925 it was known as the Grimaldi Museum, and is today known as the Picasso Museum, the first museum in the world to be dedicated to the artist. Picasso himself donated works to the museum, most notably his paintings “The Goat” and “La Joie de Vivre”. In 1990 Jacqueline Picasso bequested many works by Picasso to the museum. These included 4 paintings, 10 drawings, 2 ceramics and 6 etchings. These are displayed at the Château in addition to the 3 works on paper, 60 etchings and 6 carpets by Pablo Picasso which the museum collected between 1952 and 2001. Today the collection totals 245 works by Picasso. ~ Wikipedia

The art was wonderful. Many sketches, paintings, some pottery, and a large collection of painted plates. None of the descriptions were in English, but I found that I could actually translate more than I’d anticipated. Apparently more French stuck from high school than I thought. I can often decipher written French to some extent, but I get lost very quickly when people speak it.

On that note, all of the stop signs here say “Stop”, not “Arrét”. That seems strange to me.

The museum has a small outside area overlooking the ramparts of the wall and when we emerged we discovered that the day had changed from cold and grey, to warm and sunny, with fabulous blue skies that lit up the Mediterranean and finally revealed that colour that I had longed for since the last time we were in Greece.

And of course we had no sunscreen. I meant to buy some, it’s not like pharmacies are difficult to find. Look up and down the streets and keep an eye out for a neon flashing green cross and a pharmacy will be below it. We already visited one for some insect cream since the local population of biting bugs quickly discovered Kirk had arrived. The cortisone cream the pharmacist provided for a few paltry euros has not left his pocket since!

We wandered back through Old Town, and headed down for Port Vauban. Time to go feel like a peasant again. We walked up along the ramparts of Port Vauban and found a huge art installation that can be found (in a smaller rendition) in English Bay back in Vancouver. We found ourselves meandering along behind some of the largest private/charter yachts in the world. I started to document some names because it seemed unlikely that these wouldn’t be listed somewhere in the top 100 yachts.

We saw:

Dilbar 110m (360ft) with a 16m (52ft) beam and number 21 on the list of the largest 100 superyachts in the world

Lady Moura – 104m (344ft) with a 19m (62ft) beam and number 24 on the list of the largest 100 superyachts in the world

Nirvana (oh and she was a beauty!!) – 87m (285.5ft) with a 14.2m (46’7″) beam and number 48 on the list of the largest 100 superyachts in the world. The Nirvana was being cleaned (like they all were) and a half dozen crew had the side of the vessel opened up to load back four big jet-skis and a speedboat into the garage. The speedboat (aka the dinghy) was about 30 feet long and stunning, with the same lines as her mothership.

Kingdom 5KR (the ugliest superyacht around these parts) – 86m (282′) long with a beam of 13.2m (43’4″) and number 50 on the list of the largest 100 superyachts in the world

Lady Sarya – LOA of 76.31m (250’4″) and a beam of 11.58m (38′) and number 92 on the list of the largest 100 superyachts in the world

Anastasia (lovely vessel) – 75.5m (247’8″) LOA and a beam of 13.4m (44′) and number 95 on the list of the largest 100 superyachts in the world

Northern Star – LOA of 75.4m (247’5″) and a beam of 13.5m (44’3″) and number 97 on the list of the largest 100 superyachts in the world

Polar Star – LOA of 62.97m (206’7″) and a beam of 11.9m (12’2″)

Eminence – LOA 78.43m (257’4″) and a beam of 12.4m (40’8″) and number 80 on the list of the largest 100 superyachts in the world

Hermitage – LOA of 68.15m (223’7″) and a beam of 12.8m (12′)

We have also seen the following vessels at anchor here:

“A” (definitely one of the uglier superyachts around!) – 119m (390’5″) LOA and a beam of 18.87m (61’11″) and ranking number 14 on the list of the 100 largest superyachts int eh world.

Nero (seen in Cannes yesterday) – 90.10m (295’7″) LOA with a beam of 12m (39’4″)

Rising Sun – 138m (454 ft) – This vessel is at anchor off the beach here in Juan les Pins – Kirk thought it was a cruise ship! It is the 8th largest superyacht in the world!

Ice – LOA of 90.1m (295’7″) and a beam of 15m (49’3″) makes Ice the 38th largest superyacht in the world. Ice was anchored just outside of the marina in Antibes.

Those are the ones I could identify….

I find it funny that the lengths actually list to the inch…really, because the 3″ make all the difference on a 300 foot boat! And as we were leaving we looked at a “small” boat between to of the Megayachts, it said it was a Mangusta 92′ and we thought, no, that’s not 92 feet long, it looks like it’s 50 or 60 feet long. The 92′ must mean something else. A walk along the marina and into more normal sized boats and we stopped next to a 42′ Dufour, and realized how screwed up our relative perspective on boat sizes was after being near those megaliths. That “little” boat really was a 92 footer, and it looked small, really small, to us.

We needed to get back to reality, so we stopped and watched a group of older men play a cutthroat game of boulés for awhile, before heading up to Fort Carré. We walked up and around the ramparts and looked down into the marina and over the city before heading back to Old Town for a snack at a cafe. I told the waiter we would like a Tiramisu, a café cremé, and an espresso. He seemed confused and repeated “tiramisu?” back to me. “Oui, tiramisu.” “Sweet?” Kirk replied “Si!” Now the poor fellow was really confused. It was dinner time, we were apparently ordering dessert without dinner, and then Kirk answered in Spanish, with a french pronunciation, when he was obviously English speaking. We finally got our tiramisu and coffees, and they were excellent.

A walk back to Juan les Pins where we thought we would have a late dinner by the beach, we thought wrong. Restaurants have no rhyme or reason here. We did get a table on the beach and a bottle of wine with some crostini and tapenade, but they had stopped serving dinner and said if we would like dinner to come back tomorrow. Most things are open every day “except Monday”, and those restaurants that are open Mondays don’t seem to be open Tuesdays. Some are only open on weekends, and some only open for breakfast and lunch. Some show dinner menus, but we still haven’t encountered them open. Some serve late and are well patronized, some seem to close around 7pm. And the menus may or may not have english, so my interpretive skills have been growing, turns out that the vast majority of French that I know relates to food. One particular restaurant had a great food selection section – Snaking – and although we were tempted to ask for some snakes, we decided not to. In general though, it’s a crap shoot for finding a place to eat, but it probably has a little bit to do with the time of year, although according to our hoteliér, not completely.

And now, with the sound of fireworks carrying from Cannes, scooters racing up and down the roads, and the occasional blaring radio, we are enjoying a bottle of red wine back in our room.

Another great day, only a slight sunburn. I should probably find a pharmacy and buy some sunscreen.

Only the one photo right now, it’s late and I want to get to sleep. More photos from today to come tomorrow, which will probably still be today back home, depending on what time I wake up anyway… just too many to sort through tonight.

May 13, 2012 – May 13, 2012 – Funny how you live in a place, know that things are where they are, but never really go and look at them. I was wandering back and forth in the sun down at the Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre and a man was about to take a photo of his wife in front of this art. I walked over and asked if they would both like to be in it, they were thrilled and thankful. When I handed the camera back he asked if I’d like my photo taken in front of it, since I had a small camera in my hand. I laughed and said “No, but thank you, I live here” which started up a conversation about how wonderful the weather was and that they’d heard it had been horrible recently.

Had tickets for two events today – the EPIC sustainability Expo at the Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre and Rock of Ages, the Broadway musical on at the Centre for Performing Arts May 8-13. I was meeting a friend for the former, and it was a good trade show. I finally found a composter that will work on our little deck.

The latter event I received two tickets for from Kirk as a birthday present, but with his having to leave town on his father’s death, I was left with an extra ticket and no one to go with. I tried inviting a couple of people, but it’s hard to find anyone on a fabulously sunny Sunday afternoon, which also happens to be Mother’s Day.

Here’s the stupid thing – I almost didn’t go myself.

I can get on my motorcycle and spend 8 hours riding by myself in another country along deserted backroads, and have conversations at the side of the road with strangers, without so much as a blink. But when put in a situation where I have to go to a Broadway musical by myself, I found it difficult.

Stupid, right?

Eventually I convinced myself to go and enjoyed myself.

The show was fabulous, but I really missed having Kirk there. We went through the 80′s together, and there were so many wonderful stereotypes and cliches in the show, many of which I recall vividly, and lived or wore. Having been a part of the club scene in the 80′s, it was hysterical.

May 11, 2012 – I don’t want to scare it away, but the weekend is supposed to be nice…shhhh….it frightens easily….

Wow, nice weather AND on a weekend AND it’s sailpast this weekend for our yacht club. What a fabulous set of circumstances. I was invited out on a couple of boats for the weekend, scratch that, I was heavily pressured by a number of people to come out on one of the boats since Kirk is back home dealing with his Father’s death. One friend even went so far as to include a portion of steak and prawns in her grocery list, and suggested that she’d brought extra bedding along for me. No pressure there

For some strange reason everyone here feels that I need to be with the social group for the weekend. I think they all thought I would be sitting home alone.

It took a lot of work to finally convince friends that I really just want to take the opportunity to pull my helmet on and do a few hundred kilometres on the bike tomorrow. The last three times I was on a motorcycle weren’t really fabulous – two rides in pouring rain (one of those late at night to add to the fun), and another getting Kirk’s bike back home from the Valley. I want a NICE ride for a change. And tomorrow’s weather is promising that.

So while I love that so many people seem determined to not see me be alone, and I do so dearly appreciate the love, I am looking forward to the solitude and meditative focus I find on the bike. I am quite happy by myself. I have a pretty good relationship with me

So, Wall-E and I plan to enjoy the sun tomorrow, just on land rather than on the water this time around. There is lots of boating season ahead.

May 4, 2012 – I glanced out the window and had two surprises. The first was some sunshine, the second was that the bogbean (Menyanthes trifoliata) in the pond was in flower. I love this funky little water plant with the wazzed out hair-do! It ended up in the pond sort of accidentally. I had purchased a water lily out at an aquatic plant store in the Valley a few years ago and the owner broke another plant by accident and tossed it in the bag. It’s now rampant in the pond.

April 20, 2012 – Gorgeous day today. In some ways, rain would have been better. I might have finished my marking then. But it was sunny and glorious, and Kirk had to work, and it was my day off – so what’s a girl to do but pull out the bike and go for a ride?

A run across the border to pick up a couple of parcels waiting for me, and a ride for a couple of hours until enough time had elapsed that I could safely go home and coax Kirk away from the phone and computer. Off to a local pub for a late lunch/early dinner.

And now off to a Coldplay concert.

Yup, that’s a pretty stellar Friday!

April 11, 2012 – I love the water, I really do. Driving is fun, riding is more fun, but boating…yes……boating…. it captures my heart. It’s the only place where I really, truly, relax and unwind. And I cannot say enough about the community of people that we have grown with and been welcomed into. Who knew that buying a boat meant an entirely new life. Who knew that buying a boat could possibly mean that I’d be glad about not getting a job seven years ago because it would have meant making a decision about leaving a community of people we have become so intricately entwined with over 14 years.

So when spring rolls around, I am not thinking about the next ride. No, I am dreaming about the next boating trip. I don’t care if it is an hour floating off Stanley Park, it’s an hour on the boat and there is nothing that can compare with that hour on land. I’ve always loved driving, and the motorcycle and scooter are fun and easy for a quick thrill if the day looks promising, but they really pale in comparison with a day on the water. On land you are constrained by roads (paved or gravel), but on the water, there are no constraints. You can go where you want, when you want, as fast or as slow as you want, and you can find social events easily, or you can find isolation even easier.

14 years ago we had a little pot of money. We could have done something smart, like put it into property, invest it, or sell our condo and buy a townhouse. We almost did – buy a townhouse that is. But at the 11th hour we bailed and realized that would have been smart, easy, logical, and, therefore, we didn’t do it. Smart, easy and logical are – well – easy! Easy never suits me. So instead we cancelled a potential deal on a townhouse, pulled back from selling our wonderful little condo in North Vancouver, and did a bit of thinking. I remember saying to Kirk that I didn’t really want to leave North Vancouver, and maybe we should think about a recreational purchase. He said “A cabin?”. Having grown up with a cabin in the family, I said “Well, a cabin is nice, but the view is always the same, more or less”, and I thought that a movable cabin would be more interesting (and worthwhile). And thus we ended up not buying just a boat, but a new lifestyle, and we unknowingly entered into a new world of friends. Love these people!

Funny, my mother was horrified when we bought the boat. “What a waste” – she said. “It’s not a property purchase” she said. Then she came and stayed with us, and we took her out on the water. She took the dinghy out for a row, and when she came back she made one, very significant comment…

“I understand” was all she said. And that was the end of the debate.

So, we are looking forward to boating season, and although the bikes will fill in a few holes, as the quote from Kenneth Grahame’s Wind In the Willows says: “There is nothing – absolutely nothing – half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.”

Yes, I agree. Lots of things are fun, exhilarating, or even simply enjoyable. But nothing compares to the joy of being in a boat. I think it comes down to a simple primal connection with the water. Being on a boat takes us back to our primordial roots.

If you don’t boat, you should, because you really don’t know how wonderful having a life that involves boating is! End of discussion.

I’m waiting………..

(Photo taken at Hollyburn Sailing Club in West Vancouver, where we were holding our Squadron AGM – which is really just to say that we had a short meeting and then socialized and ate appies)

April 6, 2012 – Dare we hope? Could Spring finally have decided to make an entrance? The pink cherry blossoms always seem to herald fair weather, but it’s been such a miserable start to the year weather-wise here on the West Coast.

Out riding today, the blossoms seem to be making an appearance on a wide-scale manner at last. Each one reaching hopefully towards today’s fickle sun, which came and went and hid behind a rain and hailstorm for a bit. We read the weather forecast, which indicated rain on the North Shore.

We zipped over to 4th Avenue to stop in at one of our favourite stores both to drop off a coat Kirk had purchased before Christmas and on which a pocket zipper had come loose. Rather than fix it, they are getting him a brand new coat. You have to love that sort of guarantee! Buy a coat, wear it all winter, break a zipper, get a new coat! There is a reason they have our business. But when we went to leave, the heavens opened and a major hailstorm started. We ended up returning to the store and had a fabulous chat with the assistant manager about everything from travel to riding. When it finally cleared up we headed out around UBC, then on to Steveston and along the Fraser River for a nice afternoon ride, a coffee, and a bite to eat, then out to Horseshoe Bay for an evening coffee before heading home. Everywhere we went everyone was in such a good mood, and only a few road warriors to contend with.

Nice of Mother Nature to send us some fair weather on a holiday Friday. Much appreciated!

April 3, 2012 – One thing the outer coast of Vancouver Island does particularly well is grow moss. Why? Well, with an annual average precipitation of close to 3 metres of rain, it’s a pretty moist environment. It’s lovingly known as the “Wet Coast”, and it is a beautiful place to visit if you are a person who can get past the rain, because there is a lot of rain. It’s strange, rain becomes annoying in the city, but out here it just never  bothers me.

I came out to Nitinat River for a couple of days of work. If you make the 6:30am Horseshoe Bay ferry, you can be at Nitinat by about 11am – faster if Don drives, just hang on tight! To get here, one drives to Port Alberni – our trip over the hump was in a relatively heavy snowfall. From Port Alberni, one heads onto the logging road towards Bamfield – also in a snowstorm for us. About halfway to Bamfield, you turn onto the road at Franklin Camp – still snowing hard on us. Nitinat River Salmon Hatchery lies about halfway between this point and Lake Cowichan, otherwise known as “The Middle of Nowhere”, and what a fabulous place the Middle of Nowhere really is.

I hadn’t been out here for about four years, but most of the same characters are still working at the facility. Six of us drove out to meet about a variety of things, each with their own agenda. Even though most things could seemingly be dealt with over the phone, it is well appreciated by the hatchery staff when those from the city make the long trek out to visit and discuss things in person.

Once we’d dealt with a number of topics and all reached the end of our ability to sit, we each wandered off to our own means before dinner. I wandered down to the pumphouse at the river and waled along the outflow channel in the rain. I love the peace of wandering in these forests out here, the moss dampens most of the sounds, and the rain is isolating. Flickers, robins, ravens, and eagles sit in the trees and watch you curiously. I used to come out this way to Bamfield quite often, sometimes I’d just toss my kayak on the truck and head out for a weekend away, I had the luxury of a friend who worked a the Marine Station for a few years. Sadly, it’s been about 10 years since I was at the Bamfield Marine Station, but Nitinat is pretty close, so I’ll have to time another trip out here sometime when some of the people I know who still go out there for research are around, and then make a side trip to the Station.

Until then I’ll amuse myself by getting lost in the wonder of the miniature world that has grown on the side of a wall. Moss is amazing stuff.

April 1, 2012 – They tell us it’s spring, but it snowed in many parts of the Lower Mainland today and March was colder than average. The sun came out in the afternoon and I could almost sense the plants stretching out to trying to find the warmth. You can find the world in something so seemingly simple as a spring blossom, if you just slow down and witness it.

“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” ~ Anais Nin

March 24, 2012 – Isn’t that a lovely evening view? I’m just so grateful to actually see a sky without clouds. And what a wonderful day it was, I didn’t even mind that I had to work. Why wouldn’t I mind working on a sunny Saturday? Because I was able to ride to work, and a great ride it was. Although I have to say that it was pretty cold. When I left early in the morning, there was frost everywhere, good clue it was going to be a chilly hour on the road, and I wasn’t wrong. It took about a half hour before I could fully feel my toes once I’d arrived at my destination.

I was providing biological/fish health support for a community salmon enhancement workshop out in the depths of Langley at a salmon hatchery I hadn’t been to before. The ride out on the freeway wasn’t too terribly bad, fingers and toes were a bit chilly, but the sun was on the road and there is always enough traffic on the freeway that it sort of generates its own level of heat. But when I turned off the freeway and had to find my way along the side roads, lined with tall trees and fully shadowed, it got really cold! But it was worth it. I had the fabulous opportunity to meet some new people, and a few people who I’d met several years ago when I was teaching a workshop on fish health. There was some controversy, and that’s always a lot of fun. Life’s boring when everyone agrees, so much more interesting when you can debate and exchange ideas, when you can each educate the other in thought and ideas. And if you can provide some insights and help people go away thinking about mechanisms for approaching practices with a different frame of mind, one other than “but we’ve always done it that way”, it’s been a successful day. One woman piped up during the workshop and started telling the facilitator about a biologist who had taught her at Malaspina, and then went on about something she’d learned. It was great fun to be able to interject and say “Carol…that was me, I was your teacher..” and watch her face light up with pleasure and hear the laughter from others as she said “WOW! I thought you looked familiar when you came in!” I think that when I came in fully geared for riding that she probably just didn’t put it together. But it was so lovely to have an opportunity to hear how something I’d taught 7 years earlier had stuck and helped her with her work, and to be warmly welcomed in once again. We had some fabulous discussions on projects and ways to promote education for volunteers in the programs.

And 6 hours later, when it was time to gear up and leave, it was fabulously warm. I didn’t even mind that I missed my turn and got somewhat lost trying to navigate my way to a motorcycle dealership that I’d said I’d stop by to see a bike. In an email exchange I’d been asked if I wanted to test ride it, and it had been suggested that should they put a battery in and set it up for a ride we should discuss pricing. I’d responded that they should not set it up and that I was not prepared to make an offer at this time.

In all honesty, I don’t think it’s smart to buy a motorcycle at this time of year, at least not when you already have one to ride. It’s sort of like buying a truck when the snow starts to fall, better to buy it before the snow starts to fly, or, if you didn’t have the foresight to think ahead, wait it out until the prices are better and dealers are more willing to make better deals. You simply are not going to get the best deal at the start of the season, so why waste money when you have a really great bike, and one that is still teaching me things. Last year gravel made me nervous, in the past two days I’ve hit long stretches of loose gravel and it was fine. I now understand how the bike reacts and how to handle it. Maybe hitting grooved concrete at 120 km/hr a few times in the US last fall got me over the less-than-perfect-road-underneath-me issue. Today it taught me what 153 km/hr felt like! (Oops, wasn’t intentional, was just trying to get away from an aggressive and dangerous idiot.) When the sun comes out people get so desperate to be on the road that they become emotional about a purchase and don’t make smart choices, or fiscally intelligent ones. But then again, is there anything intelligent about a motorcycle anyway? I suppose it depends on what you are doing with it. If it’s just a toy, then maybe not. If it is a tool for reducing fuel consumption and using it for a fun and fiscally and environmentally responsible choice for commuting, then maybe a bit more so. But there is still a certain insanity in riding, regardless of the reason.

I did stop by to see the bike, and it was wonderful to see the fellow in question, and he dangled the keys in front of me and said they had charged the battery and made it ready for a test ride if that would help move a decision towards a potential sale. We went down and fired it up, I sat on it and it felt good, but I declined the test ride. It didn’t seem fair to take it out when I have no intention of making a snap decision on it at this point in time. The deal has to be perfect and impossible to refuse, and I don’t think that will happen this early in the year. We played a bit of a game “what’s the wiggle room on the deal that you’ve presented?” “Well, you should put something down on paper and we’ll see where we can go”. Yeah, I know the drill, I worked in retail back when, I understand the psychology of getting someone attached to something, seriously, I worked with pets, can anyone refuse a kitten/puppy once they’ve held it and it’s curled up in your arms or licked you chin? And because I understand the psychology of “the sell” that’s how I ended up with the scooter. I don’t fall into the trap, I am a hard sell and killed two deals on two separate trucks and just needed some wheels to get around town and a scooter seemed like a cost effective alternative until I could make the deal I wanted. We rent them when we travel abroad, if I could stay alive on a scooter on Corfu, Kefalonia, and Zakynthos, Vancouver would be a piece of cake. Both parts of the world have crazy drivers, but we actually have some rules here. So it took almost six months before a deal finally went to paper on a new truck.

It always makes me smile when dealers put you in/on the vehicle, it’s such a psychology trick. Try to get you to feel it, become attached to it. They tell you how great you look in/on it, talk about all the adventures you can have in/on it. They want you to visualize yourself with it, try to define you by it. I don’t get emotionally attached to machines anymore. I did that with my first truck, and even though I swung a fabulous deal on it, never again. (Yes, OK, I bloody well LOVE my scooter and I think it is the best machine ever built, and the best thing I’ve ever purchased in my entire life, but that’s a love that developed AFTER I bought it and didn’t factor into the initial purchase.) When a drunk driver totalled the back end of my beautiful truck I realized that becoming that attached to a “thing” was foolishness. It’s just a machine, it doesn’t define me, and I’ll never let anyone convince me that a machine can alter people’s perception of me and make me, well, whatever. A car, a truck, a motorcycle, they are all just tools or toys. It’s not “Hi, I’m Paige, a motorcyclist”. I am Paige, and if we get into a discussion, then you might find out that one of the things I happen to enjoy is a ride. But I’ll never define myself by a machine or an activity. That just sort of smacks of a lack of self esteem or a desperate need to fit into some strange perception of societal illustration. It’s not being yourself, it’s being something that you think you want to be because maybe someone will think something of you that you are hoping will make you more interesting or desirable. C’mon, it’s just a machine, not an identity.

Anyway, it’s an interesting bike, and one that I’ll think about. So I was honest and told him that I didn’t want to give any false pretenses, but that I’d think about it. If someone else comes along and makes an offer, then that’s great and I hope he gets the sale and associated commission. And if it’s still there in a couple of months, then maybe I’ll make an offer. And if it’s not there, well, either it wasn’t meant to be or I might find one elsewhere at a better price. In the meantime, I have a fabulous ride. Besides, we are thinking about a different boat these days. A friend recently told us that the outside slips at our yacht club now have an even longer waiting list than they used to as many retirees are buying bigger boats that don’t fit into the sheds. We need an outside slip in order to buy the sailboat we want, soooo, if there are no outside slips to acquire, maybe we’ll look for a new (older) boat that will fit in the slip we have and give us something a bit bigger and more comfortable until we get that outside slip. Boat or bike… I suppose it depends on which great deal comes along first. Or maybe I’ll change my mind one way or the other.

So a warm sunny ride for each of us to meet at home – me from Langley to home, Kirk from Squamish to home. I was checked out pretty thoroughly by an RCMP officer on a motorcycle on the way. He pulled in from the side of the road and came up in the parallel lane and sat off my back wheel in my blind spot for a bit, I assume having my plate run for any outstanding issues, checking to see if I had a class 6. I imagine he was also watching to see how I responded to his presence, a brand new rider is more likely to wobble etc. Sure, I was going over the limit by a bit, but so was he, and so was everyone else. Apparently he didn’t come up with any justification to pull me over so eventually he moved on and disappeared.

Kirk and I arrived at home, from two different directions, at about the same time and he suggested dinner out at our favourite seafood restaurant to round out the night. A fabulous meal at the Salmon House on the Hill in West Vancouver is a perfect cap to any perfect day, and this fabulous sky greeted us as we left the restaurant.

Can a day be much more perfect?