Re: Random stuff - the anything else thread
 

They should teach this in realtor 101- probably wont gather up many if any potential buyers or sellers annoying people at 6pm at night who live in subsidized housing, not really the demographic who can afford 500,000+ homes.

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A single lady, or a lady and a man could go into Ladies and Escorts, and the single men had to go in the Gentlemen section. In the Marina I managed to get over in the other part anyway. :egyptian: A few years later there were places that still had the signs up but didn't enforce it. I'm not sure what year the law changed, or if it was provincial.

Re: Random stuff - the anything else thread
 

Out with Capital One and in with CIBC.

Costco credit card will move over to CIBC early next year.

CIBC will also acquire the entire Costco credit card portfolio from Capital One which has $3 billion in outstanding balances.

CIBC did not disclose terms of the acquisition.

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/cibc-buy...-one-1.1647127

Re: Random stuff - the anything else thread
 

I well remember those days ......... but if I remember correctly, it was beer parlours and only beer was served in both areas. The beer was almost literally slung at you, and if one person at a table ordered another beer or jug, everyone else got one. There were only wood tables and tables, often very scarred and scraped/

We went to the Fraser Arms one time after a softball game, must have been around 1970, and I ended up with 6 full glasses lined up in front of me. I hadn't even finished my first glass of beer when the others started asking for another and another.

There were only a couple of places that I knew of which had what might called a lounge bar ............. the Sylvia Hotel on English had (still does so far as I know) a lovely bar looking out to the Bay, comfortable chairs, and nice atmosphere. The other was the bar at the Faculty Club out on UBC campus. I don't know about te Hotel Vancouver or other hotels ........... we only ate in them ............... but the Granville strip was full of beer parlours.

Re: Random stuff - the anything else thread
 

In the Marina the tables were bolted to the floor. Those old beer parlours shared a characteristic smell, the same way trains and railroad hotel back stairs smelled the same. I couldn't get over that; the south side entrance to the Hotel Saskatchewan smelled just like getting on the passenger train.

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Sylvia Hotel, I always liked the Virginia creeper on the outside, was planted there by a Mrs. Kenvyn after WW2

From their website:

Opened as apartments in 1913 and named Sylvia Court Apartment, for affluent tenants, and including dumb elevators in every unit.

Apparently at time of opening it was the tallest building in Vancouver.

July 2, 1954 they opened Vancouver's first cocktail lounge.

Doesn't say when it was converted from apartments to a hotel though, edit I missed it, looks like by the end of the 1950's the permanent residents were gone and it became a full-time hotel.

Re: Random stuff - the anything else thread
 

In Scotland you used to get some bars that were pretty much men-only establishments. I can certainly think of at least one bar that didn't even have a ladies toilet until relatively recently. Then there were larger pubs which had 2 bars with distinct entrances - a "public bar" for the men, which was basic and utilitarian, and the "lounge bar" which was a bit fancier and was where the men went when they took their wives out. Drinks were always slightly more expensive in the lounge bar than the public bar to reflect the extra comfort, and that price difference was a regular source of grumbling among some of the men.

I remember as a child being sent into a pub to pass a message to my grandad because neither my grandmother nor mother would go into a pub by themselves.

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In the Australian summer of 2020, a group of magnificent Canadian firefighters came to our aid and helped us through a devastating fire season.
In 2021, Australian firefighters were able help our Canadian friends. I think the bears came as a bit of a shock though :lol:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-...nada/100432860

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Upside to Canada's dangerous critters is they are mostly large and fairly easy to see and avoid, where you have all those little dangerous critters hard to see and avoid that can kill with just one bite in a bite and run.

Spring and fall are when bears are most aggressive generally, spring with new babies, and in fall they get hangry as they marathon eat to pack on the pounds for their winter siesta.

Now if you visit Vancouver, its the coyotes in Stanley Park you got to watch out for, they have been attacking humans quite often in the past couple years, there will be a coyote cull though as the attacks are becoming way too common and brazen, these are urban human habituated coyotes so they don't have the fear of humans that their non-urban counterparts have, human habituated bears are most dangerous as well.

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Nothing in Oz scares me as much as bears, not that I've ever seen one :lol:

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I have seen a fair share of bears since living in BC, most of them when living in Squamish, you can't live in Squamish without running into a bear a few times a year, may even find a few hanging out in your backyard, my MIL is always sending photos of bears and deer, and cougars walking through her back yard, that town has a whole lot of bears living in it.

Re: Random stuff - the anything else thread
 

Saw bears near where we lived in NJ…coyotes and deer frequented our land. Coyotes are becoming a big problem in Toronto…we often see them near the house. We saw one walking across one of the city’s main roads one evening.

I hear they are going to start culling the coyotes in Stanley Park.

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*note to self* Cross Squamish off bucket list.

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I think they're going to trap and euthanize 35 to start and see how that changes the numbers of encounters. If they could catch the ass-clowns that are leaving dogfood out for them and fine the daylights out of them it might help too.

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The occasional Groundhog is as wild as it gets in our backyard.

Also, the occasional Groundhog is as wild as it gets in our backyard. :lol:

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Coyotes are all over Vancouver, the Stanley Park ones are getting a little too brazen though and attacks have gotten worse, so its to a point it can't be ignored at this point or someone may end up dead, the other parts of Vancouver I don't think the Coyotes cause many issues and generally avoid people, but cats are on their menu, and you will see in the coyote areas of the city more missing cat flyers than in parts with fewer coyotes.

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Just go in January, the bears are not around, its still nice in winter, different type of things to do and see, summer is overrated.

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cyanoacrylate glue sold as super glue under various brands, is aquarium safe well not to hold an aquarium together, but to hold plants down, or coral to the rockwork, wont hurt fish, and cures almost instantly in water, downside you have about 10-20 seconds from the time it enters the water to the time it will no longer stick.

Re: Random stuff - the anything else thread
 

When we were living down there in 75/76, we took a driving holiday up to Cairns and back. Someone OH knew told us "we must drop in to see his parents, who had a cane and fruit tree acreage in Queensland". Unfortunately he forgot to tell them, so they had no idea who these 3 people were knocking at the door, but were most hospitable.

They were post war immigrants from Europe (Yugoslavia, I think), living in a lovely typical old Queensland house. We were told to sit around in the living room, with no lights on, while the mother cooked dinner. The men, father and a couple of sons, soon started telling us stories of crocodiles, etc, hoping to scare us. We waited quietly, and when they'd finished OH just casually mentioned how careful we had to be when going camping, putting ur food in bags to hang from trees, because of the bears, and what might happen if we left the food on the camp table or, heaven forbid, in the tent.

We had THEM squirming. looking under chairs, and into dark corners. :rofl:

We never told them how OH jumped when he went to the loo in the middle of the night ............... having to go out the back door as the loo was separate from the house as was so common back then ............. lifted the lid and a cane toad was staring up at him :rofl:

Re: Random stuff - the anything else thread
 

If we are out at the right time in the evening, we quite regularly see 1 or 2 coyotes strolling calmly down our street, usually going from east to west.

They gave some new neighbours one heck of a shock soon after they moved in about 6 months ago.

They don't bother us if we don't bother them. But never be so daft as to have a cat that runs free or even a small dog, or it won't live long.

As Jsmith said, notices re missing cats or small dogs are often posted on trees and poles. There's never much hope of finding any trace of them, not even bits of fur or bones.

We live in the southern part of the city, with houses on small lots, so you would not normally think you would see lots of wild animals. The streets are well treed, along the sidewalks, but gardens are generally small and open. But we have coyotes regularly, as well as raccoons and skunks.

Re: Random stuff - the anything else thread
 

Same really in San Diego, coyotes are all over, especially in the canyon areas of the city, every so often someone will stumble upon an old coyote den there and find collars and remains of pets but I wouldn't call such a find common, but seems to be a trend in the western US as well, especially So. California with urban coyotes becoming more aggressive and losing their fear of humans, as far I as I know in US and Canada fatal attacks are extremely rare and maybe in single digits, I know of 2 fatal attacks, 1981 in Los Angeles when a 3 year girl was taken by a coyote in her front yard, her father was able to chase the coyote down and get her to hospital but she died 4 hours into surgery, had a broken neck from the attack.

In 2009 a 19 year old in Nova Scotia was mauled by a pack of coyotes and killed, she is the only known adult to ever been killed by one, she was in Cape Breton's Highland National Park.

I try to avoid them, they stay away from me, I will stay away from them, and we never let our dog outside alone or off leash as too much risk, she is small enough to where a bald eagle could even take her for a meal.

Looks like a good chunk of the non-fatal attacks on adults in California were either joggers, or people with a dog and got attacked when protecting their dog.

Re: Random stuff - the anything else thread
 

I really like his 2,000 gallon aquarium, its such a perfect size for a nice collection of fish.

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Hey, that Bodacious isn't bad. I bought a tin (god help me :lol:) a few days ago and MIL, SD and me all had a (very) small glass with roast lamb. We'll 'risk' a bottle next time.

It's rare for me to enjoy a wine these days let alone one that three of us find drinkable.

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It would be nice if annual inspections for things could just be done all on the same day, would surely be nicer for tenants rather than constantly needing to rearrange their schedule to accommodate, life of a renter.

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I don't like it. It's blended beyond all recognition (blended wines are no problem, but should still have some character) and it's just too sweet. I'd cook with it if given some. My $9 - $11 bottles are stuff like Copper Moon Merlot or whites like Yellow Tail or Copper Moon Chardonnay.

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Well that's the problem for me. I've always preferred dry but then it's completely undrinkable for the MIL and SD. They like Tisdale Sweet Red which is sickly sweet. It may well be that a full glass of Bodacious is a quantity that becomes too sweet, but that small glass was acceptable to all three who were sipping.

Re: Random stuff - the anything else thread
 

Kind of a creative way for Netflix to advertise an old show, but a new show to Netflix, Seinfeld is coming to Netflix, I have seen every episode like so many times, I have no interest in watching it, but I wonder if Netflix had to pay a pretty penny or 2 for the rights.

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I have not seen any of the episodes, but I met JS at a dinner in NYC. A very funny guy.

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I started watching about 1995 on the first run when I graduated to go to bed when your tired age vs being told to go to bed, I was 16 or so.

I was only like 10 when it first hit the air so I wasn't up that late and well 10 year old me probably wouldn't have liked it, as 10 year old me also hated MASH but now its one of my top TV shows along with a couple other 1970's era TV that I hated watching as a kid in the 80's.

Those in BC the top 3 in demand jobs apparently Nurse, Chef & Truck driver, all require varying levels of training, nursing probably the hardest, and chef I think really does require some level of natural talent and isn't something that can just be taught, those who hate cooking like myself, probably would not excel as a chef.

I would do trucking but eh BC wont let me, just like they wont let me be a security guard, but I could be a nurse if I had the academic ability.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/briti...s-bc-1.6167073

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The axiom that red wines should be room temperature isn't always true. Not all wines benefit from being chilled, but some do, and not necessarily real cold like you'd drink Rose'..Try putting your glass of Bodacious in the fridge for half an hour. That might mute some of the sweetness and reveal some of the flavour. I think the vintners were trying to make something universally appealing, and I'm not sure that can be done.

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What do you all call this thing?

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...fdb7b67260.jpg

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It was just called 'pulley' in our house when I was a kid.

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An airer for a quilt?

That looks like a pulley on one end. But if the idea was to raise/lower it so that when not in use it was against the wall, it should be on the other cord shouldn't it?

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It has a pulley on both sides, it is raised to the ceiling when not in use. (It's for drying clothes).

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Traditional clothes drying/airing racks of old are often used for hangng pots / pans / ladles etc., these days.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...20199c813.jpeg

Re: Random stuff - the anything else thread
 

I only asked because I've always known this just as a "pulley"... that's all they were ever called. We have one in our new (old) flat, and when a friend from London came up to visit this weekend he called it a "Sheila-Maid".

I thought that was quite bizarre - the rest of us all did - but it turns out Sheila-Maid is just a proprietary brand that he uses as a generic reference, like Hoover. I'd never ever heard it called that before, and there was one in most houses when I was growing up, it was always just a pulley.

Re: Random stuff - the anything else thread
 

Or like the Murphy Bed (though it's named for the inventor rather than a brand).
Every circular saw is a skilsaw
every reciprocating saw is a sawzall

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Sort of along the same lines - in Australia this is a clothes airer, scouse calls it a maiden. Not sure if that's a UK/regional thing or if scouse is just indulging in a bit of wishful thinking.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...3270548764.jpg

Re: Random stuff - the anything else thread
 

They're also in the UK, but the advantage of the pulley one was that the drying clothes were lifted out of the way and left the floor area uncluttered.

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Clothes Horse in Canada.