Sam betrays his essential cheapness

As a frugal boozer.

Maple Stout, Cannery, BC

Cannery Brewing - Maple stout, tried at the Alibi room - but only a shot glass. Way too mapley, not so good.

Red Racer Imperial IPA, Central City, BC

on tap at the alibi room

Thor's Hammer, ??, ??

Thor's Hammer - Barley Wine, drunk at the Alibi

Le Nez Rouge, Yaletown Brewing, BC

Yaletown Brewing Le Nez Rouge - Belgian Trippel

Dances for a Small Stage 20, BC

Saw the program B, most of it, of Dances for a Small Stage.

Not great. In fairness, showing up after 3 hours at the Alibi room sampling the taps was ill-planned, its hard to focus, and the darkness puts me to sleep.

Still, the pieces, not so great.

1. Cori Caulfield - not sure what the point was, it seemed to be "I'm really hot, and I have a tiny top", which is true, but not such great dance, mostly a prolonged wiggle.


2. A piece not on the online program, choreographed by Crystal Pite?, also not too sure what the point was, maybe "pink wigs with four foot hair are cool, and I'm beautiful", which is true, but the movement was only a bit more interesting than the first.


3. Tedd Robinson - he's weird! Budha statues in suit cases! Fans, blowing blue feathers, strange oriental kimonos, and done by the time he walked to the center of the stage. WTF? But who cares, not boring, not pretentious, then its over!


4. Wen Wei Wang- "I've got a rose sticking out of my pants like a hardon, and I'm rubbing little pink shoes up and down my crotch - are you wondering what's going on?". Uh, yeah, I am.


5. Chengxin Wei - "I can dance". Ok. Why?

Mostly, I don't ask "why", because the answer should be "why not?". Not everything needs a purpose. But once I'm bored, I start to. Its not clear why some people are on stage. Dancers are a pleasure to see, they move well, they've years of training, incredibly fit... but thats not enough reason to show up on stage. Or maybe it is, but not enough reason for me to watch.

Extreme Carting!

The NFB is starting to go online! Extreme carting... how fast can you coast a shopping cart?

Lets find out...

Red Racer Winter Ale, Central City, BC

It's a limited edition, so you can't find it on Central City's web site.

I like it. Its warm and tasty, a bit spicy on the finish, which clears out the sweet start. Got a 6-pack of cans. Be better on tap. I have to make a field trip out to Central City, try some of their beer.

Bah Humbug, Wychwood, UK

Can barely taste the cinammon (i.e., after being told its there, I can imagine I can taste it).

Basically, a bit sweet, but only 5.0%ABV. Its OK.

Augustijn Grand Cru, Van Steenberge, BE

The grand cru of the Augustijn that I've tried before.

What can I say, sweeter and higher alcohol content.

Lots of flavour, I'd have to confess, but whatever its called, this particular style of beer is not my favorite. Maybe with the right food? At the right time? Just before bed, by a warm fire, with the intention of getting drunk, eating sharp cheese, and a gentle back massage by my sweetie?

Biere des Ours, La Binchoise, BE

"Bear Beer", made with honey. I got a few bottles for Christmas.

Sweet, heavy, and high alcohol (8.4%ABV). Its OK, but not a favorite style of mine.

Slipstream Cream Ale, Phillips, BC

Summary, it went bad.

Camping in Manning Park, BC

Nous sommes allés faire du camping d'hiver à Manning park vendredi denier. Nous avons eu beaucoup de plaisir. Nous avons commencé par faire du "tubing" avec remontée mécanique! Des vrais pachas... On the photo you can see me, then Alex, Thomas and the 5th one is Mike. Sam is ahead taking the picture! Plus tard, nous avons loué des patins et j'ai joué au hockey pour la première fois de ma vie. Yes, for the very first time. You might think that it is weird, knowing that I am from Québec but I just have bad memories of people playing hockey on the ice and being or too good for me to join, or just too passionate to include a beginner. A group of people asked if we wanted to join. They just waned to play and we did a friendly game with special rules : "shoot near the net only" so you have to do more passes and more collaboration. That was good. After a bit, even if it was -20 degrees, we where very warm! Après, retour au campement pour la fondue au fromage. C'était très bon! Mais il fesait de plus en plus froid. Nous avons terminé la soirée dans le "hot tub" du complexe hotelier de Manning... Après tout les campeurs aussi sont des invités non? Once we where warm enough we jumped in our triple sleeping bags and did not move for the night. There was frost at the top of my sleeping bag, in the small opening where air was coming in! In the morning, we had a high calories meal: bacon, sausages and veggies and we left to go for a 3 hour cross country tour. Alex et Thomas sont partis faire du ski alpin. We left for Vancouver around 4 pm and it was snowing, on the way back, all the way to Vancouver. Yep! Still snowing here!