Now that it’s been three months that I have firmly moved out of my apartment and will not return to it nor would I ever consider buying it, it is now an acceptable time to talk specifically about my little abode that I called home for over six years (February 2005 until September 2011)!
On my tiny student stipend, I have no idea how I initially afforded the rent plus utilities like hydro, cable/Internet to pay myself. Rent for my 439 sq.ft. “alcove studio” (i.e., a fancy way to say “bachelor”) …

During the first year of my past workplace, I kind of followed my boss’ example and was a bit reclusive, aloof. The three researchers (two males, one female) stepped out of the office together every lunch. They walked by my office on their way out but a pattern had been established. Frankly, I was afraid that with the three of them, “shop talk” would dominate and that’s not my idea of a lunch break.
Halfway through my first year, a lot of students completing internships came through my department, some of …

On a lunch-hour walk between Granville and Cambie on West Broadway, I must have ducked into a half-dozen potential lunch spots: Pizza Cono for cone-shaped organic pizzas, Chiffon Patisserie, Saravanaa Bhavan for $5 4-item lunches, and Whole Foods hot food section. I was just hoping La Taqueria at its new Broadway/Cambie location would be open and worth passing up other good food… but not quite yet.
I was marveling how La Taqueria is going to be able to give Chronic Tacos, a California-based chain that arrived in Vancouver last year, a …

Next after Groupon, Living Social (LS) is where I have made the most group-buying purchases. No doubt LS is doing a good business for itself but I’ve noticed they got a fancy new logo (can’t even remember the old one) and differentiating itself with family-oriented Family Edition coupons as well.
I didn’t know about Kreation Artisan Cakes, itself a narrow shop tucked between narrow shops on the west side of Cambie Street between West 17th and 18th Avenue. Their LS deal of $7 for a half dozen cupcakes (reg. $14.25) and …

February 1, 2010 marked the (approximate) five-year anniversary of me living in Vancouver. Although I did arrive in the Lower Mainland in August 2004, my first four months were spent atop Burnaby Mountain in an SFU residence, followed by a month of random, miserable south-east Vancouver living (to wit: I moved into a dump near south Main, non-stop January rains happened, it flooded, I moved out).
Five years ago, I moved into the Cambie Village area of town, the area I spied amongst my first days in Vancouver as my preferred …

It’s just like me. From afar, I saw my director’s coffee cup one day during a meeting and I was fascinated. Are those really wavy grooves on the surface? Is that the Vancouver skyline?* Is it a reuseable container that looks like a take-away coffee cup? Which coffee shop did he get it from? What other city skylines exist?
I just had to know!!
The coffee is from Cultured Coffee & Tea, the new(ish) coffee shop on the second level of City Square, the small mall local to my workplace. My source–not …

View Cambie Street Corridor in a larger map
It started innocently enough when I wanted to map the grocery stores (green pins) in my neighbourhood, the Cambie Street Corridor (or Cambie Village, if you please) since a big competitor is set to open its doors on April 29.

I have not posted much about where I live in Vancouver but, in fact, I am terribly giddy about my area. Quite often, I’m convinced that I live in the best neighbourhood in Vancouver (which some may add is “the best city in the world”).
I was further convinced during a visit to the boutique-y mall, City Square, and saw that cream puffery extraordinaire Beard Papa’s is coming soon to “the Square”. It is only Vancouver (and Canada’s) third location after the obvious ones: a trendy Chinese mall in Richmond and …