Vancouver Writes

That was the week that was.

I was darned glad to be rid of the bug that had laid me low the week before, and just as well or I don't think I'd have made it through this week.
Laurence has started a new job and is doing earlier shifts than before, so my own sleep has been disrupted, worrying that he will get up in time, anxiously getting up well before the crack of dawn myself to check and a couple of times having to take him in because his start time was before the start time of the buses. So, sure you know the drill, wake up every hour throughout the night wondering if it's time to get up.

By Friday I was already knackered and again, up at six to take Laurence to work. From there on out I was only back in the house for less than an hour until almost midnight.

Canadian Karen, Yvonne and I went to Granville Island for an evening event called 'Vancouver Writes'. I mention Granville Island because no-one should come to Vancouver without going there and if you are in any way creative it is sufficient reason to visit Vancouver anyway. It is an island in the way that Portsmouth is an island, you can drive there.
There are small shops and workshops, artists studios, supplies, performance places, markets, street performers, bars, restaurants, it's just an amazing soup of art and creativity. And of course it's on the water. From here you can take a small water shuttle to the North Shore, or you can sit and drink coffee and watch other people doing so.

I had never been there at night before, and the soup was still bubbling, possibly even more so. There are a number of events in a series called 'Winterruption' going on.
At Vancouver Writes, we had fun. I was glad that the three of us went together and there were irritations, but overall, we laughed and drank and enjoyed ourselves.

We sat at tables of nine people, although by no means all were full. We were given writing tasks to do as a team and each table was 'coached' by an author. I had never heard of any of them, but Karen told me that one of them was Carol Shields' daughter. Sadly we didn't get her.

When I read the original blurb, I thought we'd learn something from it, but in fact it was a mock competition, which was fine, because it allowed us to be silly and play around with language. Other people didn't seem so playful though and while our table's efforts were really funny, the ones that were read out at the end as the winners were quite subdued and lacking sparkle. Possibly more cohesive than ours though.

We were able to buy wine and cheese and there was a live band. The band were good and I really enjoyed them, but it did mean that we couldn't talk when they were playing and there was too much 'in between' time. Time when we were supposed to be talking among ourselves but couldn't. All three of us were flagging by the end.

I was happy to sit back in the car and let Karen and Yvonne navigate back across Vancouver, we were in bits that I would most certainly have got lost in. We saw places of interest in the East end of Vancouver, places Karen knows and has written about.

And then I slept for ten hours. Fabulous.