Square root of negative one

“Vancouver is the square root of negative one. Technically it shouldn’t exist, but it does. I can’t imagine living anywhere else.”

Douglas Coupland

It is but two weeks since The Girl and I left  Vancouver Island for the first time in over a year for our rapid-fire visit to Kamloops – and yet here we are again already… away from our island home.

It is the pandemic – of course – that has kept us on the island until very recently, but we are both now fully vaccinated and the relaxation of the BC lockdown has enabled us to take some very careful steps back into the outside world.

The trip to Kamloops did not go quite as we had originally planned. We had intended to stay there for several nights, encompassing the event for which we had gone. As things turned out the fresh wild-fire at Sun Peaks overnight on the Saturday filled the valley in which Kamloops nestles with thick smoke on the Sunday morning, forcing us soft coastal dwellers to beat a hasty retreat back to the island. This meant two consecutive days of pretty heavy driving and our arriving back on the peninsula not until around 10:00pm.

The Kamloops trip came up fairly late on, but we had already planned a long-weekend away in the City of Glass – Vancouver – as a sort of ‘welcome back to the world’ – given that we knew that we would not be travelling further afield this year. The idea was to have a relaxing city break – to re-meet old friends and family with whom we have not been able to connect of late – to wine and dine ourselves and – mayhap – to take in a little culture.

I am writing this on the Saturday evening in the 23rd floor suite that The Girl (to whom I inevitably leave these important decisions) found for us in Coal Harbour in Vancouver, overlooking the West End and English Bay. I have the camera with me and have been making liberal use of it. I will regale you with the results and details of what we got up to once we are back home next week.

So – welcome (carefully) indeed back to the world…