Grandview Corners Shopping Centre.

A new shopping centre opened up in South Surrey and had it’s grand opening celebration today under the gorgeous sun. People came out in droves to look around, take advantage of grand opening specials, and win prizes with the grand prize being a black Honda Fit which was parked beside centre stage. Anchor tenants to this complex includes The Home Depot, Future Shop, The Brick, Indigo Bookstore, and Walmart.

These ‘Smart Centres’ as they are called are cropping up everywhere in the lower mainland. They feature a mall design concept similar to the Chelsea/Simon outlet store developments with single storey units spread out like a residential neighbourhood, each store with an entrance from street level. I’m not that fond of shopping, but I do like this concept!

I picked up two Douglas Fir tree seedlings from the new TD CanadaTrust branch and named them Neil and Chris. Of course, you say!

The 25th Annual Vancouver Sun Run.

A few days ago, I had gone to the BC Place stadium to register Echo, Emma, and myself for the annual Vancouver Sun Run. I tried to interest George into joining us, who accompanied me to the registration, but he changed his mind at the last minute fearing that he may not have the stamina to run the ten kilometres. The Sun Run is the largest timed race in Canada and the second largest in North America!

I got up early this morning to give myself ample time to prepare and exercise before the run at nine. Mel and Sameer were also participating in the run and were supposed to join me at the start of the race, but came late and so we weren’t able to group. Donned in my new New Balance running shoes I bought from the day before with a timing chip to track my finish time and my runner number pinned to my new Vancouver Sun Run 2009 t-shirt, I walked into the Tim Hortons just outside the starting line for a doughnut.

The run started at nine o’clock sharp and the first wave of runners (of the competing sort) dashed off towards the finish line at BC Place Stadium. Groups of people based on their expected times of completion at registration were dispersed by a series of waves along the ten-kilometre run around the city. I was in with the third wave which weren’t dispersed until closer to ten, an hour after the first wave took off!

55, 858 runners turned out for the run this year, and I was glad to be part of it. After alternating from running and jogging throughout the course, I came in at one hour, eighteen minutes, and fifty-two seconds. My first ever Sun Run! Now that I’d created a baseline, I have higher expectations for myself for next year’s run. It was exhilarating!

VAG: How Soon Is Now.

I interested a few friends into joining me at the VAG for their current exhibit on contemporary art titled “How Soon Is Now”; a title that drew its inspiration from the song by the same name by The Smiths. A new friend sharing the same name as I also came out to join us after seeing my post on the Vancouver CS forum.

This exhibit featured many artists from BC and included various mediums to deliver richness and dynamism. And as with my experiences in the past, one visit for a few hours isn’t enough to see everything there is to see. One of the most memorable ones were that of a video being projected on screen of driving through a torrential downpour on a freeway somewhere from the perspective of the first person inside the vehicle. With wipers swishing back and forth in a futile attempt to wipe water off the windscreen, I found myself mesmerised. The other memorable piece I liked was the wall of dozens and dozens of reflective semi-spherical cups about the size of my hand mounted in series. When looking out from the second floor balcony, I realised that it was arranged in braille. Not knowing how to read braille however still left me a bit perplexed as to what the message may have been as expressed by the artist.

I will have to return for take two.

Sunday Fun.

Chapel Arts in the Gastown was the area to be for the MiV klan where the likes of Rob, Ieda, and I made an appearance. I also brought along Frank for some cultural contemporary fun in striking installations, bold paintings, and vivid photography from local artists. One really interesting piece I found was a dismantled CD drive and two dismantled VCRs nailed to a particle board and hung on a wall. One of us wanted to plug the unit in to see if it did anything and as she tugged on the power cord, the whole unit fell off the wall and landed on the table just 2 feet under neath it with a bang. Concealing the accident quickly, we hung it back on it’s weak nails which were hardly nailed into the wall to begin with and also got it to plug into the outlet to see it turn on. The digital displays came on, harking back to those flashing 12:00 clock’s commonly found in the bygone VCR decades.

Moving on upwards to the second floor, I saw plastic moulding casings of what appeared to be toy machine guns hung on the wall which were backlit. This was tied to another piece of a similar style using plastic moulding of toy machine guns but in a series from top to bottom on a four sides like a revolving sunglass display. Then I picked up a card on the wall with the artist’s contact name on it: James Kemp. I scratched my head wondering where I’ve heard this name before and kept repeating his name over and over until I finally got it: we went through high school together!

I’m going to send him and email and re-establish contact.

We took a nice walk towards Canada Place and stumbled upon a food trade convention there. We passed ourselves off as trade representatives and enjoyed ourselves there by sampling foods, eating organics, and drinking new fruit juices, energy drinks, and nutritional shakes. Saved us from going out for dinner.